


i'll meet you there

by darthswift13



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Eventual Smut, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Post-Canon Fix-It, Redeemed Ben Solo, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, World Between Worlds
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:20:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28437531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthswift13/pseuds/darthswift13
Summary: “What is this place, anyway?” he asks, gesturing broadly at the glittering expanse of nothingness that surrounds them. “Am I, you know...dead?”“Not exactly,” Anakin says slowly. “This is the World Between Worlds — an ancient and mystical place that has existed as long as time itself. I am assuming you did not become one with the Force because it is not your time yet, but after draining your life Force, you could not remain amongst the living. So...you wound up here.”Ben’s mind is reeling, trying to take all of this in.“So, you’re saying I’m not technically dead...what does that mean? Am I trapped here forever?”“No,” Anakin replies. “You’re not.”Rey journeys to the World Between Words to save Ben Solo so they can have the happily ever after they deserve.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 54
Kudos: 122





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to [ Robyn ](https://twitter.com/ReyloRobyn2011) for being an amazing Beta. Thank you for believing in this story and encouraging me to post it; I would never have published it without your support!
> 
> The title is from a Rumi poem called ["A Great Wagon."](https://onbeing.org/poetry/a-great-wagon/)
> 
> I wrote this story last year after _The Rise of Skywalker_ came out as a way to help me heal. I wrote it mostly for myself, and didn't really consider posting it until my friends encouraged me to do so. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story, and please be sure to leave kudos and comments if you do!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beautiful moodboard was made by my talented and lovely friend [Lena!](http://twitter.com/bensoloswhore)

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

_“Don’t go back to sleep._

_People are going back and forth across the doorsill_

_where the two worlds touch._

_The door is round and open._

_Don’t go back to sleep.”_

_-Rumi_

* * *

When Ben Solo awakens, he is surrounded by a vast, black nothingness. But as his eyes adjust, he can make out shimmering, silvery, swirling patterns and symbols against the desolate blackness. And there are stars, too — billions of stars, but they look different from any stars he has ever seen before; they almost look like they are painted into the sky.

He also makes out large oval shapes surrounding him, leading to more of the vast nothingness, but somehow beckoning him to cross through them.

Is this death, then, he wonders? Is this what it is to be one with the Force?

He looks around, the sound of his shaking breaths echoing through the never-ending void. 

He senses a presence behind him. 

When he turns around, he sees a young, handsome man with wavy light brown hair and kind eyes. He doesn’t look much older than Ben.

“Ben,” he says warmly, “it is so wonderful to finally meet you.” 

The strange man pulls Ben into a warm embrace, and Ben awkwardly taps him on the back. 

“Er — I’m sorry but — who are you?” Ben stammers.

The man smiles warmly.

“Ben, I’m your grandfather, Anakin.”

The weight of the man’s words wash over Ben, and he can sense his grandfather’s deep love for him through the Force. He feels tears begin to prickle in his dark eyes.

“Grandfather, I—” Ben is at a loss for words, before finally bowing his head, “I failed you, didn’t I?”

“Failed me, Ben?” Anakin shakes his head, incredulous. “You’ve done the opposite. You redeemed yourself. You returned to the Light, just as I did. You sacrificed yourself for someone you love without a second thought—”

Ben finds his cheeks reddening at the mention of Rey, at the mention of his feelings for her. 

“—and besides, Ben,” Anakin adds dryly, “I am hardly in a position to judge.”

Ben offers a wan smile, remembering, of course, that Anakin Skywalker had once been the notorious Lord Vader, who Ben had foolishly idolized in the days when he called himself Kylo Ren.

“So...” Ben manages awkwardly. “What is this place, anyway?” he asks, gesturing broadly at the glittering expanse of nothingness that surrounds them. “Am I, you know... _dead_?”

“Not exactly,” Anakin says slowly. “This is the World Between Worlds — an ancient and mystical place that has existed as long as time itself. I am assuming you did not become one with the Force because it is not your time yet, but after draining your life Force, you could not remain amongst the living. So...you wound up here.”

Ben’s mind is reeling, trying to take all of this in.

“So, you’re saying I’m not technically dead...what does that mean? Am I trapped here forever?”

“No,” Anakin replies. “You’re not.”

Ben’s heart starts to race. Does this mean he could come back somehow? That he could have a chance to finally make his parents proud, becoming the man they always believed he could be, even after everything he’s done?

And, overwhelmingly, he wonders if this means he can go back to Rey...if she even wants him to come back.

“So...” he starts, “How do I escape? Has it been done before?”

Anakin flashes that same wide grin.

“It has, as a matter of fact. By my Padawan, Ahsoka.” There is a hint of pride in his voice.

Ben’s heart leaps at the possibility of escape, at the possibility of seeing Rey again, before the all-too-familiar self-doubt clouds his mind once again. 

“But...how do I even know for sure Rey wants me to come back to her?” Ben asks, furrowing his brow.

Anakin sighs deeply, nearly rolling his eyes. 

“Ben,” he says emphatically, “Don’t be an idiot. You deserve a shot at a life with the woman you love, the life I never got to have—”

Ben feels his cheeks get hot again at the mention of that word. _Love._

He remembers the way that Rey had looked at him after he revived her on Exegol. His stomach does a flip at the memory of the way her eyes searched his face, the way she lit up when she said his name, the way he forgot how to breathe when he saw her staring at his lips. He would’ve been content to just stare at her beautiful face forever. He never dared to hope for anything more. 

When her lips pressed against his, he suddenly felt like maybe his life hadn’t been a waste, like maybe he had a purpose, like maybe his body wasn’t only made to do violence.

And for the first time in his life, he began to believe that maybe, just maybe, he was capable not only of loving, but of _being_ loved.

_Loving her is the only good thing I have ever done in my entire life_ , Ben thinks to himself as he gazes at a swirling star that had caught his gaze amidst the blackness.

“—Which reminds me,” Anakin continues with a soft, crooked grin, snapping Ben out of his reverie. “If you see Padmé...tell her I love her.”

“If I see who...?”

But Anakin is already gone.

Alone again in that vast expanse of nothingness, Ben still isn’t sure if he is worthy of Anakin’s love or anybody’s. 

Kylo Ren had wanted to fill Vader’s shoes, but Ben Solo swears to himself that he will do everything he can to honor Anakin’s memory by living out the life the dark side had robbed his grandfather of all those years ago. 

Ben tries to reach out to Rey through the Force, but is met only with more desolate blackness. 

_I’m coming back to you, sweetheart. I promise._

He shudders to think of Rey being all alone. But she must be with her friends in the Resistance, Ben reassures himself, warm and safe and loved, as she always deserves to be.

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

* * *

  
  


_“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field._

_I'll meet you there.” - Rumi_

* * *

Rey wakes up to the scorching white heat of Tatooine’s twin suns peeking through the windows of her dilapidated hut in the Jundland Wastes. A film of sweat coats her body and a dull ache tugs at her temples. 

She hates the desert.

As she sits up, she remembers the delicious feeling of Ahch-To’s rain against her skin, the lush green of Takodana. She remembers the feeling that swelled within her as the Falcon descended into the planet’s palatial forests, soaring over deep rivers — in that moment she swore she would never return to the desert, if she could help it.

But that was before.

Before she lost him.

When she kissed Ben on Exegol, she had a vision. Of them. Together. On a lush and green planet, their children swimming under waterfalls, she and Ben falling asleep to the sound of the rain, days spent under the shade of majestic evergreens with their friends. The belonging that Maz had promised her was right before her eyes. In her arms. 

And then stolen from her, just like that. In one cruel second, he vanished entirely, leaving her alone forever. 

She couldn’t go back to Takodana or Ahch-To or any other beautiful, green planet, for it would only remind her of everything she could have had, everything she lost.

So she set out for Tatooine, alone, not even bothering to tell Finn or Poe or any of the others where she was going. She never told them about her connection with Ben, about what happened on the Supremacy, any of it. Explaining now felt impossible. And if she hung around, she knew her misery would be written all over her face, and they would ask questions she couldn’t answer.

Disappearing just made the most sense.

She sits up, wiping away the tears that had started falling from her eyes, the result of foolishly allowing herself to think too much. 

Her stomach grumbling, she forces herself to get up, go to the fresher, clean off, and then set out to find some food. 

The unforgiving heat beats down on the back of Rey’s neck as she ventures out into the endless rolling hills of sand, listening for the distant chitter of a womp rat or, if she was lucky, a desert razorback. 

* * *

Sleep does not come easily to Rey that night — not that it ever does.

By day, she can turn her brain off, focusing only on the tedious and exhausting task of survival , but by the light of the moons there is no escaping her mind.

She hadn’t seen Luke or Leia’s ghosts since the day she buried the sabers those many months ago.

She calls out to Ben every single night, pleading through choked sobs for him to be with her, _be with her, be with her —_ but he never comes. She cannot even sense him in the Force any more; it feels as though he has cut himself off from her entirely, and she feels hollow and empty without the familiar and comforting presence of him through the Force bond.

She wonders if she was a fool to think the kiss they shared meant something more to him than a simple ‘thank-you’ for saving her life. Maybe she was just being a kriffing idiot to think anyone could ever care about her. She had always been unlovable, she thought, from the moment her parents left her. Why hadn’t she realized that by now? 

Alone at night in her tiny, miserable desert hut, cramped in an uncomfortable cot, her clothes sticking to her skin from sweat, there is no escaping the unbearable truth that, once again, she is alone in the desert, abandoned by the very people who she thought loved her the most.

* * *

As the night grows later and the ache in Rey’s chest grows sharper by the minute, she decides to seek out the only thing that ever quells the pain, however briefly: a stiff, strong drink. Rey was never a drinker before but...things are different now. Obviously.

She decides to make the trek to the cantina. Tatooine is dangerous at night, but Rey has her saber and the Force on her side. And besides, it’s not like she really cares if she lives or dies, anyway.

The desert air is slightly more bearable at night, she thinks to herself as she climbs onto her speeder. The hum of the vehicle is soothing, almost meditative as she speeds into the dark night.

Rey is almost disappointed when she arrives at Mos Eisley without issue.

She disembarks her speeder and ignores the lewd remarks a group of Gamorreans outside the cantina are making at her. It’s not anything she wasn’t used to hearing on Jakku.

She slips into the dark, seedy establishment, the rousing beats of the band mercifully beginning to quiet her racing mind. She takes her normal seat at the bar. She wordlessly makes eye contact with the bartender, who begins preparing her drink. 

This is far from her first night in the cantina.

As she watches the familiar sight of the Rodian bartender mixing together the caustic liquids that would bring her some desperately-needed relief, Rey suddenly senses a strong presence in the Force. 

Startled, she stands up so quickly that the drink the bartender had just placed in front of her crashes to the ground, shattering everywhere.

The bartender shouts something at her in his native tongue, which she suspects are curses. 

Her eyes are immediately transfixed on a strange woman seated in the corner of the cantina. A large hood is obscuring her face, and Rey can only make out the distinctive blue-and-white montrals of a Togruta. She is dressed in gray robes, and her black boots are resting on the table in front of her.

The woman knows that Rey can sense her. Rey immediately makes her way to the back of the cantina, pushing through the cantina’s crowd of shady characters. 

The woman’s Force signature is overwhelming, and Rey immediately feels a sense of unease and distrust. These days, Rey is like a wounded animal, constantly on guard and wary of strangers. So she reacts on pure instinct. Before she knows what she’s doing, she raises her hand and, channelling the Force, pushes the woman up against the wall. 

The band goes silent, as does the cantina’s patrons, who are now staring at her. The woman reacts quickly, however, using the Force to throw Rey to the ground, paralyzing her there.

Suddenly, the Gammoreans from outside the cantina are pushing through the crowd.

“Hey! What is the problem here, ladies? We don’t tolerate this type of behavior in this here fine and respectable establishment,” one of the Gamorreans grunts. 

Rey nearly snorts at the implication that there is anything “fine and respectable” about the Mos Eisley cantina. 

The woman releases Rey, who begins to stand up, gasping, shooting a disdainful look at the mysterious woman.

“Fine,” the woman mutters under her breath. “We were just leaving.”

Before she can protest, the woman has her hand wrapped around Rey’s wrist and she is dragging her outside into the hot, black desert night. 

* * *

“Let _go,”_ Rey spits, releasing herself from the woman’s grip, instinctively reaching for her lightsaber, whipping it out of the holster and igniting the glowing yellow blade, emanating a familiar hum as she attempts to strike the strange woman.

Just as she does this, the woman pulls out her own lightsaber, immediately blocking Rey’s blow.

Rey’s eyes widen as she takes in the sight of their crossed sabers. The woman’s saber is not red as she had suspected— it was a color Rey had never seen in a lightsaber before: shocking, bright, shimmering, _white_.

Rey immediately withdraws her saber, realizing the woman is not a threat. 

The woman rolls her eyes as she extinguishes her saber’s blade in turn and places it back in her holster.

“I’m not a Sith, _relax,”_ she mutters, sliding off her gray hood.

The Togruta woman has orange skin, large, piercing blue eyes, and white markings on her face.

“Jeez _,_ is this always how you always greet people?” the woman demands.

“Your — your saber,” Rey stammers, confused., “It was white. I’ve never seen a white saber. What — what does it mean?”

“It’s a... long story,” the woman mutters, lazily leaning back and pressing the sole of her boot against the wall of the cantina. “Suffice to say, though, while I’m not a Sith, I’m certainly not a Jedi, either.”

The woman’s blue eyes snap up to meet Rey’s gaze.

“Besides,” the woman adds, “You don’t exactly seem to subscribe to the ideals of the Jedi order yourself.”

Now Rey is offended.

“And what is _that_ supposed to mean?” she barks. 

The woman chuckles wryly. 

“Attacking someone you’ve just met by aggressively throwing her against the wall is _hardly_ the Jedi way, Rey _Skywalker_ ,” the woman adds snidely, emphasizing Rey’s chosen last name in a mocking tone.

“Wait...how do you know my name?” Rey stammers.

“Rey, I was there with you on Exegol, when you reached out to the Jedi through the Force. I was among the voices helping you to rise up and face Palpatine,” the woman explains.

A look of awe crosses Rey’s face as this sinks in.

“Anyway, Rey, I know Skywalker is not your actual surname...but neither is Palpatine,” the woman continues, looking down at her boot, digging the tip into the sand.

Rey is incredulous, trying to make sense of what the stranger is telling her.

“Rey,” the woman says, shaking her head. “You’re not telling me you actually _believed_ that crusty old guy, do you? I mean, he’s kind of a notorious liar and manipulator.” 

The woman shakes her head and looks up at Rey.

“As if he didn’t lie and manipulate Ben’s grandfather? As if he hadn’t been manipulating _Ben Solo’s_ mind all his life? You really think he wouldn’t do the same to you?”

  
Rey forgets how to breathe for a moment, her tanned cheeks burning red at the mention of Ben’s name. 

The weight of the woman’s words hang heavy in the desert air. The cantina band echoes in the background, a warm glow pouring out from the windows of the cantina mingling with the silvery moonlight.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” Rey finally says, breaking the silence. 

“Mmm, well, what’s more believable to you?” the woman asks. “That he would lie to you, or that someone actually...you know...with _Sheev Palpatine?”_

Rey chuckles a little bit at Ahsoka’s remak.

“I mean...that _is_ a good point,” she admits. “Anyway...who exactly are you?”

“My name is Ahsoka,” she says, extending her arm with a warm smile. 

Rey stares at her for a moment.

“Sorry, maybe in Jakku the custom is to try to kill someone when you’re first meeting, but where I come from, this is how _civilized_ people introduce each other,” Ahsoka says with a teasing smirk.

Rey returns the handshake hesitantly, her expression still steely and distrustful. 

“Ahsoka _who_?”

“Jeez, are you desert people just obsessed with demanding people’s surnames or something?” 

Ahsoka shakes her head.

“Ahsoka Tano. Pleased to make you, Miss _Skywalker,”_ she taunts, bowing slightly. 

“Hey,” Rey spits, “Luke and Leia were the only family I ever knew.”

Ahsoka laughs.

“I dunno, Rey...” Ahsoka muses, “Last I remember, you attacked Luke Skywalker for trying to kill—” Ahsoka pauses, and thinks better of saying his name this time, for Rey’s sake, “—um to kill, _you know,_ and as for Leia, did you ever even tell her about the throne room? About your connection with...” she trails off.

“How do you know all this, anyway?” Rey asks defensively. “Besides, how is it your business what surname I choose to use?”

Ahsoka chuckles.

“I suppose it isn’t... but I do think it’s an interesting choice to make yourself technically, er...his _cousin_ ,” Ahsoka adds teasingly, pinching Rey’s arm.

“Hey,” Rey mutters, cheeks turning pink as her eyes dart to her boots in the sand below them, “We’re not _actually_ related.” 

She looks up sheepishly.

“At least you’re not denying there’s a reason you wouldn’t want to be his cousin,” Ahsoka says, winking playfully at Rey. 

“I mean...I think as far as he’s concerned, I might as well be his cousin,” Rey says ruefully.

“Ummm,” Ahsoka stammers, “I _really_ hope to the Maker he doesn’t kiss his cousins like _that.”_

“I’m the one who kissed him,” Rey insists, “Perhaps he just thought it was my way of thanking him for saving my life.”

Ahsoka leans her head back to face the triad of moons above them, letting out a hysterical laugh.

“That, Rey of Jakku,” she snorts, “is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard _._ ”

“I mean...I haven’t even seen his Force ghost. It’s like,” Rey’s chin shakes as she inhales a shaky breath, “It’s like he’s abandoned me...just like my parents.” 

Rey can’t stop the tears that are pouring uncontrollably from her eyes.

“Hey, _hey,”_ Ahsoka says, pulling Rey into her arms, “Shhh.”

This only makes Rey cry harder, unused to such a display of affection. 

Rey keeps waiting for her to pull away, until she realizes that Ahsoka isn’t going to be the one to let go first. This thought almost makes Rey cry even more, but not from sadness, for once.

When she finally does pull away, Ahsoka wipes the tears from Rey’s face. She notices some sand has gathered on the bridge of Rey’s nose and brushes it off. Rey scrunches up her face in response.

“There, there, little sand rat,” she says, mussing Rey’s buns.

_“SAND RAT?!”_ Rey exclaims incredulously, but she’s grinning. 

Rey flashes a devilish smirk before lifting a handful’s worth of sand with the Force and flinging it at Ahsoka.

Ahsoka gasps, but she’s also smiling.

“Oh, you’ll pay for that, sand rat!” she exclaims, flinging a pool of sand right back at Rey. 

“And to _think_ you insisted that you don’t have any dark side influences,” Ahsoka adds teasingly. 

* * *

Ahsoka and Rey eventually fall to the ground, laughing hysterically, landing with their backs against the cold stone wall of the Mos Eisley Cantina, feeling the buzz of activity from within, their heads completely covered with sand, Rey’s head resting on Ahsoka’s shoulder.

They gaze up at Tatooine’s three shimmering moons.

After a while, Rey breaks the comfortable silence.

“How can you be so sure Ben felt... _that way_ about me?” Rey asks, her voice small.

“ _Rey_ ,” Ahsoka chides, taking her new friend’s hand in her own and giving it a squeeze. “You’re just as dense as he is, I swear. You two are a whole _dyad_ in the Force, and you still don’t know how he feels about you. _Ridiculous.”_

Rey lets go of Ahsoka’s hand suddenly and turns to face her. “How...how do you know about the dyad?” She says, still sniffling.

“Mmm...I thought you’d never ask.” Ahsoka’s lips twist into a smirk. “Tell me, Rey of Jakku...have you ever heard of the World Between Worlds?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [World Between Worlds](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/World_Between_Worlds)  
> 2\. [ Togruta](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Togruta)  
> 3\. [ Gamorrean](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Gamorrean)  
> 4\. [ Rodian](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Rodian)  
> 5\. [Jundland Wastes](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Jundland_Wastes)  
> 6\. [ Womp Rat ](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Womp_rat)  
> 7\. [ Desert Razorback](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Desert_razorback)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s alive, she thinks. Somehow, impossibly, miraculously, he’s _alive_ , and he wants her to find him.
> 
> She doesn’t know what or where the World Between Worlds is, but she’s determined to find out. 
> 
> She’s determined to bring him home to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your lovely comments on the first chapter. I hope you enjoy this next update, and be sure to leave kudos and a comment if you do! Thank you so much for reading :) <3

“The...World Between Worlds?” Rey says slowly. “I...I can’t say I have.”

“I’ll tell you about it tomorrow,” Ahsoka says with a yawn.“I, for one, am exhausted and at this rate, we will be out here until the suns come up. You can come stay with me on my ship.”

Rey appears surprised and confused by Ahsoka’s offer. 

“Look, Rey, I’ve seen that squalid little cave you call a home, and I am not going to allow you to spend another night in that awful place, sand rat.” 

Ahsoka stands up and offers a hand to Rey. While Ahsoka is still essentially a perfect stranger to Rey, she has nothing left to lose at this point, and is grateful to finally have someone to talk to, particularly someone who seems to know about Ben. 

  
She inhales deeply, and takes Ahsoka’s hand.

“I have an extra bunk in my ship you can sleep on,” Ahsoka says, pulling her up. “Cone on, sand rat. Also,” Ahsoka examines Rey’s dirty, sand-covered, sweat-soaked frame, “No offense, but you could use a ‘fresher. Lucky for you, I also have one of those on my ship, too.”

* * *

Ahsoka’s ship is a freighter, not as large as the Falcon, but bigger than the 690 freighter Rey had repaired back in her scavenging days on Jakku.

Rey wonders what exactly Ahsoka needed a whole freighter for, but as sleep tugged at her eyes, she decides that is a question for the morning.

They climb aboard the ship and Ahsoka shows Rey to the extra bunk.

“The refresher is around the corner,” Ahsoka says as she retrieves a towel from a drawer in the wall and tosses it to Rey. “If you don’t mind,” she adds, “I’d appreciate it if you clean yourself up before you get all that filth on my sheets...no offense.”

“None taken,” Rey mutters, though she isn't entirely sure if she means that.

* * *

The hand that reaches out and touches hers is so different from the warm and comforting presence of the hand that brushed her fingertips on Ahch-To.

This time, his hand is cold as ice.

“Ben?” her voice cracks when she says his name.

There is a deep sadness in his eyes when he nods.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he says quietly. 

She can’t help the sob that erupts in her chest. 

And his chest feels so solid and real as she pushes against it, but it’s cold, so very cold, reminding her that he’s not really here, it’s just some trick of the Force. 

“You — you left me — ” she stammers, angry sobs building in her throat. “You left me all alone, Ben Solo! How _dare_ you, how dare you leave me all alone like that, how dare you take the easy way out and escape having to face the grief and suffering that I’ve lived with _every single day_ for _months_ , how — how _dare_ you leave me alone — just — just like my parents.”

She forcefully pushes him away from her, brimming with rage.

Ben is visibly hurt, but there’s also patience and understanding in his dark, glassy eyes.

She shakes her head between sobs.

“But I — I can’t — it’s so hard — to stay mad at you — when I miss you — so much, Ben I just — I miss you so much and it’s killing me and I just — Ben — I just I want to be angry at you, I _am_ angry at you, I am furious at you, and I hate how much — how much despite all of that, I still just — I still just need you.”

And despite herself, she throws her arms around him.

“Rey,” he murmurs, “I am so, so, sorry.”

“But I think you might be misunderstanding what’s happening right now.” 

She sniffs and lifts her head up. “What?”

“It’s not safe, what I’m doing. I don’t have much more time. When I tried to reach out to you through the Force, I couldn’t. It didn’t work. I don’t know why. So this was the only way I could think of to tell you where I am. To tell you I need your help.”

Rey is perplexed. She takes a step back, scrunching up her face in confusion.

“I—what are you talking about? You’re not...?”

But he’s already fading away by the time he starts to speak again. “It’s very cold here,” he tells her, shivering slightly.

“Cold _WHERE_ , Ben?” she pleads. “Where are you?”

“Have you ever heard of the World Between Worlds?”

And just like that, he’s gone again.

She wipes her tears, takes some breaths to steady herself.

He’s alive, she thinks. Somehow, impossibly, miraculously, he’s _alive_ , and he wants her to find him.

She doesn’t know what or where the World Between Worlds is, but she’s determined to find out. 

She’s determined to bring him home to her.

* * *

Rey awakens to the sensation of someone tugging on her hair.

She groans as she tries to remember where she is, wondering if perhaps last night was all a dream. But when she opens her eyes she is still on Ahsoka’s bunk, and her new friend is inches from her face.

“Rise and shine, sand rat!” she exclaims.

“What time is it?” Rey groans.

“Time for _you_ to wake up,” Ahsoka says enthusiastically. “I mean...we can’t keep Ben waiting forever.”

Rey bolts upright at the mention of his name.

“What are you talking about? Ben is...” Rey can’t bring herself to finish the sentence.

“Remember when I said I would tell you about the World Between Worlds?” Ahsoka says eagerly as a grin peeks across her face.

“Yes but—what does—what does that have to do with—” Rey tries to quell her ragged breaths as tears prickle in her eyes again. “What does that have to do with...with _him?”_

“ _Patience_ , sand rat,” Ahsoka chides, pinching Rey’s nose playfully. “I’m getting to that.”

Ahsoka clears her throat dramatically. 

“The World Between Worlds is...as old as time itself. It is a mystical plane of existence, linking all moments in space and time together.”

“Go on,” Rey says slowly, trying to make sense of the words Ahsoka is saying.

“I’ve been there before, to help a friend who found himself stuck there.” Ahsoka explains.

“Alright...but what does this have to do with...with Ben?” Rey probes.

Ahsoka grins. 

“Rey...what if I told you that Ben Solo is very much alive in the World Between Worlds, trying desperately to come back to you?”

Rey shakes her head, the tears in her eyes beginning to spill over. 

“No—no—that’s...that’s impossible. You’re lying to me. Ben is _dead—_ he—he—” Rey’s voice cracks as the tears pour down her face, “He died in my arms, Ahsoka, he—” Rey is hysterical now. “ _He died saving me.”_

“Did he die, though, Rey? Or did he just...vanish? Didn’t you find that a bit odd? Did you not think it was strange that his Force Ghost never materialized for you?”

Rey’s breathing is jagged and labored.

“I assumed that was because he didn’t— he didn’t—want to see me,” she manages to choke out between sobs. 

“Rey,” Ahsoka says firmly, holding her by the shoulders, “ _Rey_ . Look at me. Do you really believe for one second that Ben Solo would ever leave you? You, the one who reached out to him, who showed him compassion when he needed it the most, who believed in him, who showed him he wasn’t alone? Do you really think—” Ahsoka closes her eyes and shakes her head, incredulous. “Do you _really_ not know how much he loves you, Rey?”

“And besides,” Ahsoka adds, “The fate of the galaxy kind of fucking depends on you two restoring balance to the Force. That’s kind of the whole point of the _dyad_.”

“How—how exactly do you know all of this?” Rey sniffs, wiping her tears.

“The World Between Worlds has portals to every moment that ever has or ever will happen throughout time and space,” Ahsoka explains, “And, well, the Force pulled me back to the World Between Worlds. I found myself drawn to the portals that showed you and Ben and the Force Bond and all of it. Like the Force _wanted_ me to help you two find your way back together.”

Rey inhales deeply, trying to absorb the onslaught of information. 

Ben Solo is alive, trapped in a World Between Worlds, desperately searching for Rey. He did not abandon her. He... _loves_ her and he is trying to come home to her. 

“How—how long will it take? For him to breach the portal, to...to come back to me?”

“Without anyone to guide him...it’s impossible to know. But _that_ , little sand rat, is why you and I are not going to wait around for this man to show up. _We_ are going to go get him out and bring him home to you.”

Rey takes another moment to process everything Ahsoka just told her. It feels too good to be true. But it _would_ explain the absence of Ben’s Force ghost, and how he feels cut off from the Force entirely.

“If what you’re telling me is true...” Rey starts.

“It is,” Ahsoka assures her.

“ _If what you’re telling me is true_ ,” Rey rejoins, “how...I mean...is there even a way to get to the World Between Worlds?”

“Yes,” Ahsoka says. Her eyes search Rey’s face. “You’ve been there. You know where it is.”

That’s when it dawns on her, the realization buoyed by the Force.

“In the cave,” Rey gasps breathlessly, “the cave beneath Ahch-To, it’s a portal to the World Between Worlds.”

“Bingo,” Ahsoka says, beginning to stand up. “Which is where we’re headed now.”

“But wait!” Rey exclaims, “I can’t just _leave!_ ”

“Oh please, who do you need to say goodbye to? A couple of _ghosts_? The weirdos at the cantina? You’re wasting away on Tatooine, Rey. It’s about time someone dragged you out of there. Besides,” Ahsoka pauses and looks Rey dead in the eyes, “Ben is waiting for us.”

At the mention of his name, Rey falls silent. 

Ahsoka is right.

* * *

Rey can’t pretend it doesn’t feel nice to fly again, even as co-pilot. To see the stars, to feel the thrill of the galaxy swirling endlessly around her. It almost makes her feel something resembling happiness for the first time since, well… since it happened.

The silence mingling between Ahsoka and Rey, however, grows more awkward with each passing parasec.

Despite the fact that Ahsoka seems to know everything about her, she is still a perfect stranger to Rey. She was curious about her past, about her apparently ambiguous relationship with the Force. She also wonders, desperately, above all, if Ahsoka had spoken to Ben when she was still in the World Between Worlds, if Ben had asked about her, said anything about her…

“You want to know about my past, don’t you?” Ahsoka says suddenly, interrupting Rey’s reverie.

“I—I mean—I guess you don’t have to—”

  
  


Another awkward silence hangs heavy in the air, when Rey notices Ahsoka veer sharply to the south.

“Er, Ahsoka? Ahch-To is to the West...”

“I know where Ahch-To is,” Ahsoka retorts. “But we need to make a pit stop. Because leaving your friends behind and not speaking to them for months, leading them to suspect you might be _dead_ , is um —no offense— extremely rude of you, Rey of Jakku. So yes, we are making a pit stop to the Resistance base, because you owe several people an explanation and an apology.”

Ahsoka isn’t wrong, but her words still hurt. 

“It wasn’t that simple...I couldn’t just go back—they—they would ask questions—”

“They’re your friends, Rey. They care about you. It’s not fair for you to just vanish to a desert planet without a word because it’s easier than facing them. Don’t you miss them? At all?”

“Of course I miss them,” Rey says softly. “It’s just —”

“I know,” Ahsoka replies. “But it’s the right thing to do. You know it is.”

Rey can’t argue with that.

* * *

When they arrive at the Resistance base, Rey’s heart is pounding.

“Nervous?” Ahsoka asks.

“Of course I’m nervous,” Rey mutters, her gaze remaining fixed in front of her.

“Hey,” Ahsoka says, reaching over and giving Rey’s hand a squeeze. “It will be hard, but your friends love you — remember that.”

Rey draws in a shaky breath. She finally turns to Ahsoka.

“You’re right,” she says, taking a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

When Rey and Ahsoka disembark from Ahsoka’s ship, they’re greeted by Finn, Poe, Rose, and a swathe of Resistance soldiers with their weapons drawn, naturally suspicious of the foreign ship. But as soon as they see Rey, they lower their weapons immediately.

“At ease,” Poe instructs the other soldiers, who drop their weapons in turn.

Rose is the first to speak.

“Rey!” she exclaims, running up to throw her arms around her without a second thought. Finn and Poe are close behind, but seem slightly more hesitant.

“Rey,” Finn says, disbelief clouding his voice, “Is it really you?”

Rey smiles, tears beginning to prickle in her eyes.

“I’ve missed you.”  
  
Finn pulls her into an embrace.

“We’ve missed you, too.”

Finn pulls away, and Poe awkwardly emerges from behind him.

“Rey,” he says, smiling as he offers her a pat on the shoulder. “Good to have you back.”

“Good to be back, Dameron,” Rey smirks.

“However,” Poe adds, “Who, pray tell, is _she_?” He asks suspiciously, gesturing at Ahsoka.

“I’m Ahsoka,” she replies cheerfully, extending her hand to Poe.

“Poe Dameron,” he replies hesitantly, narrowing his eyes.

“How do you know Rey?” Finn asks. There’s a hint of suspicion evident in his voice, too.

“Guys, relax,” Rey says, “Ahsoka’s...um, a friend of mine.”  
  


“Well, any friend of Rey’s is a friend of ours,” Rose says warmly, extending her hand. “Welcome.”

“Thank you,” Ahsoka replies, smiling at Rose.

“Rose is right,” Finn echoes, smiling. “Welcome to the Resistance base, Ahsoka.”

Poe still seems suspicious, however.

“I suppose,” he mutters, still eyeing Ahsoka skeptically.

“Rey,” Finn says, shaking his head. “We’ve been worried sick.”

  
“We feared the worst,” Rose says softly.

“It’s—” Rey draws in a shaky breath, glancing at Ahsoka briefly to steady her nerves, “—a very long story.”

Finn smiles, placing a hand on Rey’s shoulder.

“We’ve got time,” he says.

“Are you hungry?” Rose asks.

“Starving, actually,” Rey responds; she hasn’t eaten since they left Tatooine.

“Well, let’s grab a bite to eat in the mess hall, then,” Poe says. “You can tell us everything there.”

As they head in the direction of the mess hall Rey notices Poe slide his hand into Finn’s.

Rey turns to Rose, eyebrows raised with delight.

  
“Are they—” Rey whispers. “You know...?”

Rose grins. “Ever since you left. You’ve missed a _lot_.”

* * *

When they enter the Resistance base, Rey is greeted by warm hugs from her former colleagues.

“Is that Rey?” a familiar droid’s voice calls out. “My word, it is! Oh, how _lovely_ it is to see you!” C3P0 exclaims as he hastens toward Rey, BB-8 and R2 following closely behind, beeping happily at their long lost friend.

Rey grins.

“It’s nice to see you too, 3P0,” she says.

“Haven’t been giving him too much trouble, have you, R2?” Rey adds, leaning down slightly to greet the smaller droid.

R2’s responding beeps indicate that he has, indeed, been giving 3P0 a hard time.

Rey winks. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

“And it’s nice to see you too, old friend,” Rey says, turning to BB-8. It chitters enthusiastically.

That’s when Rey hears the familiar groan of her favorite Wookiee coming from behind her.

“Chewie!” she exclaims, throwing her arms around her old friend.

The Wookie responds with delighted howls.

“I feel exactly the same way,” Rey says with a grin as she pulls out of their embrace.

* * *

When they arrive in the mess hall, Rey excitedly fills her plate, excited to taste something other than womp rat for the first time in months.

Ahsoka, Rey, and Rose take a seat opposite Finn and Poe.

“So,” Rey says between delectable bites of food, “What have I missed?” she casts a look at Finn and Poe, smirking.

Poe blushes.

“Nope,” Poe says, shaking his head. “You first.”

“Yeah, Poe’s right,” Finn rejoins, “You owe us an explanation.”

Rey lets out a deep sigh.

“Guys,” Rose says defensively, “Maybe she’s not ready. The girl just got here, and we have no idea where she’s been or what she’s been through. Give her a minute.”

“ _Thank_ you _,”_ Rey responds gratefully. “I’m glad someone understands.”

“Fine,” Poe mutters, stabbing at his food. “We’ve been working to snuff out the last vestiges of the First Order, and for now at least, it seems like we’ve defeated them. But we’re still constantly working to gather Intelligence on the whereabouts of any former members. The First Order rose from staunchly loyal former Imperial hardliners in the decades after the fall of the Empire, so we’re trying to keep tabs on any remaining strongholds.”

“There’s been no sign of Kylo Ren since Exegol,” Finn adds.

Rey starts to choke on her food at the mention of his name. Rose gives her a clap on the back, and Rey’s breathing returns to normal.

“Are you—good?” Poe asks, eyebrow raised.

“Yeah,” Rey coughs. “Sorry—just—haven’t eaten much in the past few months. Got a bit — er — overzealous.”

“Anyways...” Finn continues slowly, giving Rey a quizzical look, “like I said, there’s been no sign of Kylo Ren since Exegol. We suspect he’s dead or in hiding.”  
  


Rey does her best to maintain her poker face. She feels Ahsoka quickly give her hand a supportive squeeze from under the table. Rey squeezes back gratefully. 

“So,” Poe rejoins, “We’ve been looking for him, but the search has mostly been fruitless. For the most part we’re in this transitional phase as we work to establish a new democratic republic in the galaxy. We’re actually looking to clear out of Ajan Kloss pretty soon — living out of a cave when there’s no longer an active threat to hide from gets pretty old — and start considering where and how to restore the Galactic Senate. Oh and— you probably already sensed it in the Force but—”

“Leia passed,” Rey says solemnly. “I know.”

She feels an ache in her chest as she remembers that Leia died bringing Ben back to the Light, which none of them know yet.

A reverent silence passes between the group, before Poe interjects.

  
“So yeah...that’s pretty much it,” he says.

“ _Um_ ,” Rose cuts in, eyes darting back and forth between Finn and Poe, “I believe you’re leaving out some _very_ important news.”

Poe and Finn glance around shyly, suppressing smirks. 

“ _Boys_ ,” Rose says emphatically.

“So, um, yeah...” Finn mutters, “About that...”

Poe is beaming.

“We’re um...I um...” Poe stammers.

“He proposed,” Finn finally blurts out, grinning.

“Shut _up,”_ Rey shrieks, slamming down her glass of water. “ _When?”_

“About a month ago,” Poe replies.

“But we’ve been together since um, since, um, after Exegol — after you left,” Finn explains.

“I know it seems fast,” Poe adds. 

“But I guess,” Finn turns to look at his fiance, still smiling ear to ear, “when you know, you know...you know?”

“Exactly...” Poe says, mesmerized as he stares back into Finn’s eyes. 

And, thinking immediately of Ben, Rey somehow knows exactly what they mean.

  
“Yeah, I think I do, actually,” Rey replies, smiling slightly.

Ahsoka starts to smirk and Rey kicks her from underneath the table.

“Well, congratulations!” Rey exclaims. “Have you set a date?”

“Yes,” Poe replies, “Next month, actually.”

“We didn’t want to wait very long,” Finn adds, interlacing Poe’s hand with his own.

Poe is still gazing lovingly at Finn, pride evident in his expression.

“Anyway,” Finn finally says, snapping out of their lover’s reverie. “How long are you going to make us wait to hear about where you’ve been?”

“And when is _she_ going to explain who the kriff she is?” Poe says, glaring at Ahsoka.

“Guys, come _on_ ,” Rose snaps defensively.

“No,” Rey says. “They’re right. I owe you all an explanation, but, erm, is there...is there somewhere a bit more private we could go?”  
  


“Actually,” Rose replies, “we’ve been having a lot of bonfires on the beach these days. It’s getting late, we could go talk there.”

“That sounds perfect.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [Freighter](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Freighter)  
> 2\. [Ajan Kloss](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ajan_Kloss)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s alright,” Rey says. “We know you’re needed here. Do you think you can grant Rose leave to help an old friend get her, um—” Rey pauses for a moment, unsure of how to refer to Ben.
> 
> “Boyfriend?” Rose offers.
> 
> Rey turns bright red.
> 
> Ahsoka smirks.
> 
> “Rose, we’re hardly — that’s not — I don’t even—” Rey stammers. 
> 
> “General,” Poe muses, turning to Finn, “should we grant Commander Tico leave to go help rescue our former enemy from the netherworld because our good friend Rey here has a crush on him?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the chapter count as I've consolidated some shorter chapters, but as I'm still finishing up the end of the fic it still might end up being longer, but that's my estimate for the length as of right now. I hope you enjoy this update, and kudos & comments are always greatly appreciated; they help me to gauge if people are interested in the story so I can determine whether it's worth it to keep posting. Thank you so much for reading! <3

The beach sands on the jungle moon of Ajan Kloss feel so different from the hot, dry sand of Tatooine. Rey relishes in the cool ocean breeze and the salty scent of the water, the shadows of the thick green trees along the edge of the beach.

As terrified as she is about the conversation they’re about to have, she can’t ignore the fact that it just feels so _right_ to be back with her friends on a living, vibrant, green planet.

She’s sitting on a log beside the fire that Poe has started. Finn and Poe are sitting across from her, Poe’s arm around his fiance, and Ahsoka and Rose are on either side of her. 

Poe slides a flask out of his jacket.

“To Rey,” he says, taking a sip and passing the flask to Finn, who passes it to Rose.

“To Rey,” Rose and Finn join warmly, “And to her safe return.”

“Sorry, do you drink?” Poe asks as Rose hands his flask to Rey.

“These days, yes,” she mutters, taking a gulp before quickly passing the flask to Ahsoka.

Poe continues to eye Ahsoka suspiciously as she takes a sip from his flask.

“Alright, buddy, what is your problem?” Ahsoka finally spits.

“Sorry, I just —” Poe stammers, “Rey disappears for months, and then shows up with some random stranger. Give me one good reason to trust you.”

“Rey trusts me,” she says simply, handing Poe’s flask back to him.

Poe sighs.

“Fair enough, I guess,” he mutters, but he still doesn’t sound entirely convinced.

“Poe, _enough_ ,” Rey snaps, “Ahsoka is not a threat. Just...trust me on this one. It’s all...a very long story. I don’t even know where to begin with all of it, to be honest.”

“Why don’t you start with telling us where you’ve been?” Poe interjects.

Rey sighs.

“Tatooine,” she finally replies quietly.

“Tatooine?” Finn echoes.

“Desert planet in the Outer Rim, no?” Poe says, taking another swig from his flask.

“Yeah,” Rey mutters, “That’s the one. Can I, um, have another sip of that, by the way?” she asks.

“Sure thing,” Poe says, tossing it over to her.

“You _hated_ Jakku,” Finn says, incredulous. “Why would you go to another desert planet?”

“I mean, initially I went there to bury Luke and Leia’s sabers — Tatooine is Luke’s home planet — but I...decided to stay.”

“ _Why_ ?” Finn replies, still bewildered by this revelation. “And why would you leave with absolutely no explanation? Rey, we thought you were kriffing _dead_ , do you understand that?”  
  


“Easy, Finn,” Rose chides.

“No, Rose, I’m sorry,” Finn says, shaking his head, “You better have a pretty good reason for ditching us to go be a hermit on a _kriffing desert planet._ ”

Rey glances to Ahsoka for support, who offers a half-hearted smile.

“It’s complicated,” Ahsoka says, coming to Rey’s defense.

“And what do you know about it?” Poe asks.

“Everything,” Ahsoka retorts, “But it’s Rey’s story to tell, not mine.”

“Rey, it’s okay,” Rose says gently. “You don’t have to tell us everything right now.”

“You’re letting her off the hook too easily, Rose,” Poe mutters.

“Guys, guys, _please,_ ” Rey pleads, “Let me speak.”

Rey closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“I...I know what happened to Kylo Ren,” she says finally.

Now Rey has thoroughly captured her audiences’ attention.

“ _You_ know what happened to Ren?” Poe asks eagerly, eyes widening as he leans closer to the fire.

Rey almost regrets saying it out loud. She shoots another desperate glance at Ahsoka.

She senses a comforting feeling being passed through the Force.

_-Thank you._

_-Anytime, little sand rat._

Rey draws in a shaky breath.

“Do you guys know Kylo Ren’s true identity? Who he was...before he was corrupted by the dark Side?”

“What...what do you mean, Rey?” Rose says slowly.

“Kylo Ren is a mantle taken up by a former student of Luke Skywalker. His...nephew actually. Kylo Ren is...” Rey glances around at her friends. “Ben Solo, the son of Leia and Han.”

A silence falls over the campfire. 

“No,” Finn says finally, shaking his head. “There’s no way — “

“It’s true,” Rey says. “I swear it.”

And she tells them everything. About Snoke’s manipulation, Luke’s betrayal, all of it.

“Leia and Han spent their whole lives waiting for their son to come home,” she explains, “They never gave up on him. And Leia...she...she died bringing Ben Solo back to the Light, using what was left of her Life Force to save him. And...on Exegol...I faced Palpatine and I — I was dead but—” 

Rey takes a deep breath.

“Ben — Ben Solo saved my life.”

She is fully crying now.

Rose moves over to comfort her, putting her arms around her.

Finn and Poe are silent, their faces colored with bewildered expressions. 

But Rose, sweet Rose, she seems to understand immediately.

“Rey...Where is Ben now?” she asks quietly. 

“I’ll... get to that,” Rey says, pulling out of Rose’s embrace but remaining close beside her. Rose takes Rey’s hand in an effort to reassure her.

Rey looks over at Finn and Poe, waiting desperately for them to say something, _anything_.

“So,” Finn says finally, “Ren — uh — sorry—” he swallows hard. “ _Ben Solo_ is the son of Leia and Han...but then he was corrupted by the dark side and became Kylo Ren...but then... Leia brought him back to the Light, and then he — he saved your _life_?”

Finn pauses. Heavy silence fills the campfire site.

“Wow,” he says at last, exhaling deeply.

“There’s more,” Rey says cautiously.

  
She feels Ahsoka’s comforting presence in the Force again. She is grateful. Between that and Rose beside her, she has the strength to continue.

“Ben and I are...we’re what’s called a dyad in the Force. Two that are one. It’s... a power as strong as life itself, and...we share a connection that spans across space and time . It is a rare phenomenon, and our connection was prophesied generations ago. We—” 

Rey pauses, taking another deep breath.

“We have...I mean, the Force can... connect us across space and time. This started happening when I was on Ahch-To with Luke. We...started having conversations and I started to understand his story, started to see how much of Ben Solo still lived on inside of Kylo Ren, started to see that he could still turn.

“On Ahch-To there was...there was a moment where we touched hands through this Force Bond and I — I had a vision about him being redeemed to the Light, which ended up coming true when he came to help me fight Palpatine on Exegol.”

Rey smiles slightly, remembering when the bond connected him, remembering the way he looked at her, the way he nodded at her and how she immediately knew in that moment that he was finally her good and noble Ben Solo at long last.

“So I went to the Supremacy to see him,” she continues, “to plead with him to return to the Light side. He took me to Snoke’s throne room, where Snoke instructed him to kill me—but instead he—he killed _Snoke_. And together we fought Snoke’s guards side-by-side.”

Another heavy silence washes over the group.

“Woah,” Rose says after a beat.

“Yeah,” Poe echoes, letting out a breath.

“Wow,” Finn says.

“Anyway,” Rey rejoins finally, taking another deep breath, “He — Kylo Ren — he...offered me his hand. To rule the galaxy by his side. And I was so hurt, because I had expected him to turn when I went to him...I couldn’t discern when or where my vision took place, I didn’t know it wouldn’t happen until a year in the future and I was...I was...”  
  


Rey is fighting back tears again. Rose squeezes her hand tighter.

“It’s okay, Rey,” Rose says softly.

Rey offers a grateful smile.

“I was h—heartbroken because I _did_ want to take his hand, but it wasn’t Kylo Ren’s hand I wanted...I wanted to take _Ben Solo’s_ hand...and I—I told him as much when we were on the ruins of the Death Star.”

Rey wipes away the hot tears that are pouring down her face now.

“And then on Exegol...Palpatine told me I was his _grandchild_. Which turned out to be a lie...which is where Ahsoka comes in. She’s the one who pointed out that Palpatine has been lying and manipulating people forever, and it was yet another ploy on his part to try to bring a powerful Force user to the dark side.”

“But I’ll explain more about that later — to get back to Ben — while he and I were fighting Palpatine, he — Palpatine — he —” Rey’s breathing is ragged as she chokes back tears and tries to force the words out, “He flung Ben into a pit, and I — I assumed he was dead and it felt like...it felt like a part of _me_ had died. But I didn’t even have time to process that because I was still fighting Palpatine. And finally, as I lay there, nearly defeated, I heard all the voices of the Jedi of old cheering me on, and I rose, and I deflected Palpatine’s Force lightning back at him, and I defeated him, but I literally...I died from the effort.”

Rose squeezes Rey’s hand again, listening intently, concern glistening in her dark eyes. 

“And then...somehow...he...Ben climbed his way out of the pit, every bone in his body broken, almost dead, and yet...he somehow found the strength...to pull himself out of there for — for _me_ —”

Rey stops to let out a choked sob.

“Oh Rey,” Rose says gently, stroking her hair.

Rey sniffs.

“I woke up in his arms, on the ground in that Sith cave on Exegol,” Rey says softly, growing embarrassed as she relates that intimate moment they shared. She almost leaves the next part out, but...these are her friends, and she wants to be honest; and besides, if she _does_ manage to bring Ben back home from the World Between Worlds, they would find out the nature of their relationship pretty quickly — if they hadn’t surmised it already.

“And I knew— I knew in that moment he was fully and truly the Ben Solo, the good and noble Ben Solo from my vision, and I—” 

Rey’s eyes dart to the ground below them.

“I...kissed him,” she says softly.

Rey glances to the side, blushing as she nervously shoves a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

When she finally dares to look up, she glances at Rose first, who is smiling. Poe and Finn, meanwhile, are trying to hide their shock.

“And then,” Rey finally continues, trying to ignore the hot flush growing on her cheeks, “I had — I had a vision — of our future together — on a green planet with lush forests and waterfalls and — I saw our...our children—” Rey wipes away more tears, but she’s starting to smile now as she recalls the beautiful vision. “And he smiled at me — and I’ve never seen anything so beautiful — after all his suffering, he finally experienced what was perhaps the first moment of pure, unadulterated happiness in his life, free of the voices in his head, free from the grip of Palpatine and the dark Side, only — only to fall backwards and vanish only moments later. And that’s when I realized he didn’t just Force Heal me — he — he saved my life by giving me his entire Life Force.”

Rey can no longer hold back the body rattling sobs that she had been swallowing.

“Rey,” Rose says, wrapping her arms tightly around Rey and rubbing her back soothingly. “Shhh,” she murmurs softly.

  
Rey feels Ahsoka’s comforting presence in the Force again. Rey hopes Ahsoka can sense her unending gratitude.

That’s when Rey feels another, larger hand on her back. She turns around to see Finn. And Rey’s heart swells. She throws her arms around him.

Poe is standing behind Finn, and gives Rey a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Finn and Poe sit down beside her.

“So—he’s—he’s gone then?” Finn asks gently.

“Actually,” Rey sniffs, “Not quite.” Her lips twist into a crooked smile. “There’s—there’s still hope. Ahsoka actually—that’s um, that’s why she came to find me, to tell me that Ben is alive, but he’s trapped — in the World Between Worlds.”

“The _what_?” Poe asks.

“Ahsoka—” Rey says, still wiping away her tears and struggling to form coherent sentences, “Can you take this one?”

“Sure thing,” Ahsoka says warmly. Finn, Poe, and Rose turn to face her as she goes on to explain the mysterious plane of existence, and her connection to it.

“So,” Rose says, “Let me get this straight. The World Between Worlds exists beyond the normal realm of time and space, and provides portals to different planes within time and space and Ben Solo is — is trapped there?”

“That’s right,” Ahsoka says, “And Rey and I intend to go get him out.”

“Wow,” Poe says.

“This is... a lot to take in,” Finn adds. “And I have to be honest Rey...it’s not going to be that easy for me to let go of the fact that he was _Kylo Ren_. I was one of the First Order’s stormtroopers, you know...I’m not exactly the biggest fan of that guy.”

“Me either,” Poe mutters.

“But for your sake, Rey...” Finn adds resolutely. “I....I can try.”  
  


“Thank you, Finn,” Rey says. “That means a lot. I know...I know this is a lot to take in.”

“You can say that again,” Poe grumbles.

“So...how do you get to this World Between Worlds place, anyway?” Rose asks. 

“There’s...a dark side cave on Ahch-To...I went to it when I was there training with Luke Skywalker. I didn’t realize what it led to at the time, though; Ahsoka is the one who told me about it,” Rey explains.

“Gotcha...” Rose says. “So, when do we leave?”

“ _We?”_ Rey asks. “I mean, Ahsoka and I were planning to go together, but I wanted to stop here and talk with everyone first—”

“It never hurts to have another friend though, does it?” Rose asks.

Rey smiles.

“What do you say, Ahsoka?” Rey asks Ahsoka.

“It’s fine with me."

“We would come,” Finn chimes in, “But as co-generals, we need to stay on base...”

“And with, you know, the wedding coming up and all—” Poe adds.

“It’s alright,” Rey says. “We know you’re needed here. Do you think you can grant Rose leave to help an old friend get her, um—” Rey pauses for a moment, unsure of how to refer to Ben.

“Boyfriend?” Rose offers.

  
Rey turns bright red.

Ahsoka smirks.

“Rose, we’re hardly — that’s not — I don’t even—” Rey stammers. 

“General,” Poe muses, turning to Finn, “should we grant Commander Tico leave to go help rescue our former enemy from the netherworld because our good friend Rey here has a crush on him?”

Rey stands up suddenly, completely flummoxed, face scrunching up in protest. 

“POE DAMERON, I swear to the Maker, I will LEAVE this planet right now, as a matter of fact I AM leaving, I am _going_ —” Rey clamors as she brushes the beach sand off her lap and begins to turn around.

“Mmm,” Finn responds, ignoring Rey’s outburst and bringing his hand to his chin as he raises his eyebrow and turns to face his fiance. “That’s a tough call. But, seeing as we care about Rey and want her to be happy, I think we should allow it... no matter how questionable her taste in men may be.”

“Finn, I _SWEAR,_ ” Rey starts, but she’s cut off by Poe, whose tone is suddenly solemn.

“And it’s what Leia would want,” he adds quietly. “That’s her son.”

Finn and Poe share a meaningful look before taking one another’s hands.

“Yeah...he’s right,” Finn says softly.

Rose takes a deep breath and grabs Rey’s hand.

“So, when do we leave?” Rose asks. “We can’t keep Ben waiting forever,” she adds with a smile.

* * *

The next morning, Rey is fiddling with her hair in front of the bathroom mirror. She’s been putting it up in her signature set of three buns and taking them out again in a loop for at least fifteen minutes. For some reason, the hairstyle that once felt so comforting just doesn’t feel right anymore.

She lets her dark hair fall around her face, the ends resting gently just past the edges of her shoulders, right where the scar on her upper arm rests. Her hair has grown longer during the months on Tatooine. She tries pulling it halfway back, the way it had been on the Supremacy, the day Ben — well, Kylo — offered his hand to her.

She smiles back at her reflection in the mirror. _This_ style feels right. The face staring back at her feels less like a child and more like a young woman.

She glances down at the sink, where she’s laid out the clothes someone from the Resistance let her borrow while the laundry droids clean the tattered and stained outfit she’d been wearing on Tatooine.

The clothes are similar to what she typically wears, only darker in color. She steps into the black cotton pants and wraps a dark grey tunic on top, secured by a dark brown leather belt where her lightsaber holster rests. She slides into her tall black boots and then pulls on a dark grey hooded cloak around her shoulders, which Rose suggested she bring along to protect against Ahch-To’s rains. 

She assesses her appearance in the mirror again, and finds herself sliding off the elastic that is securing the top half of her hair, letting it fall down. 

With her dark hair sprawled around her shoulders over her dark cloak, she looks older now, no longer a scared child hiding away in the desert. 

She feels powerful and beautiful and, for the first time in what feels like forever, she feels strong. 

* * *

Rey feels a pang in her chest as she bids her friends farewell the next morning. She hates having to say good-bye so soon. 

But she’ll be back. With him, next time. The thought makes her feel warm and light.

“Oh, Rey, it’s such a pity to have to say good-bye so soon,” 3P0 says forlornly. BB8 and R2 chitter sadly, echoing his sentiments. Chewie groans forlornly. The group has gathered outside Ahsoka’s ship to say good-bye.

Rey smiles.

“I’m sure he’s looking forward to seeing his Uncle Chewie, too.”

Finn pulls Rey into a tight embrace.

“Good luck out there,” he says. “And may the Force be with you.”

“Thank you, Finn,” Rey says, before turning to Poe.

“I might not be thrilled about this guy, but I hope you’re able to find him, for your sake — and Leia’s,” he adds quietly.

Rey’s eyes begin to prickle with tears.

Poe smiles warmly.

“Come here,” he says as he pulls Rey into a friendly embrace.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey descends toward the cliff where she first glanced the sinister cave over a year ago, and jumps down into its foreboding depths, determined to bring Ben Solo back, whatever it takes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on this story thus far. I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and please be sure to let me know in the comments if you do! Thanks for reading <3

Once Rey and Ahsoka are settled into the cockpit of Ahsoka’s ship, Rose pops up in between them.

“You guys are awfully quiet,” Rose says. She looks over at Rey and grins. “You changed your hair,” she remarks.

Ahsoka grins.

  
“I noticed that, too. Trying to look nice for your _boyfriend_ , sand rat?” Ahsoka teases.

“Shut _up_ ,” Rey mutters, face burning red.

“She’s so funny,” Ahsoka says, turning to Rose. “She really thinks we don’t know after she spent like a whole hour explaining how she’s in love with this guy.”

Rey lets out an exasperated sigh. 

“Can we _please_ change the subject?” she mumbles through gritted teeth.

Ahsoka scoffs.

“Fine, sandrat,” she says, rolling her eyes. “ _Jeez_ , so _sensitive_...”

Rey folds her arms across her chest and sinks into her seat.

“So...” Rose chimes in. “How long until we get to Ahch-To?”

“Not soon enough,” Rey mutters.

“It looks like we’ve put her in a bad mood,” Ahsoka sighs. 

“Her like _Force soulmate_ or whatever is trapped in another dimension after he literally _died in her arms_ and she’s just spent several months alone on a miserable desert planet. Cut her some slack,” Rose points out.

“ _Thank you_ , Rose,” Rey says, shooting an irritated look at Ahsoka. “ _Anyway_ , I have some concerns about going back to this dark side cave that I wanted to discuss with you, Ahsoka.”

“That’s fair, I suppose,” Ahsoka retorts. 

“First of all, how exactly do we get from the cave to the World Between Worlds. Is there, like, a portal or something?”

“Not exactly...it’s hard to explain. But it will become clear when you arrive.”

“Oh, well, then thanks for clearing that up,” Rey says sarcastically. 

“Wow, you _are_ in a mood, sand rat.”

“ _Maker_ , I’m just,” Rey lets out an exasperated sigh. “I just — not two days ago I was on Tatooine, miserably resigned to the fact that I was going to spend the rest of my life alone in the desert because that’s what I had convinced myself I deserved, because I had been abandoned _again_ just like—”

She can’t stop the tears that begin pouring from her eyes.

“Oh, Rey,” Rose says softly, grabbing her hand.

“And you know I really thought, I really thought there was no one alive who really understood me, who could relate to the things I’ve been through. I really spent my whole _kriffing_ life thinking I was alone until he made me feel like — just — I don’t know, _seen_ and appreciated and understood in a way no one else ever has — ”

She lets out another full-bodied sob as Rose wraps her arms around her. 

“And I know, I know I’ve have the Resistance and I love the friends I’ve found there, I do, but it’s different, I just have never in my life connected with anyone the way I connected with him, and I know it sounds so _kriffing stupid_ —”

“Rey, it doesn’t sound stupid,” Rose says reassuringly. 

Rey sniffs.

  
“I always wanted a family to call my own,” Rey says softly. “And—” she takes a deep breath. “And when...when B-Ben and I...k-kissed on Exegol, I had a vision. Of our future.” Rey’s tone becomes warmer. “We were on a beautiful green planet with rolling hills and green trees and lakes and _waterfalls_ and I...I saw...” Rey smiles softly, looking down. “I saw our children.”

Rose is smiling.

  
“Rey, that’s beautiful,” she says, sniffling.

“Ben’s grandmother is from Naboo,” Ahsoka says with a knowing smile. “It makes sense.”

“How do you know so much about Ben’s family?” Rey asks.

Ahsoka sighs.

“It’s a long story. But suffice to say, I knew Ben’s grandfather well.”

The three women sit in silence for a while, as stars flash by the windows of the dashboard, the gentle hum of the spacecraft reverberating softly.

“I’m afraid to go back there,” Rey says finally.

“Back where?” Ahsoka asks.

“The cave on Ahch-To...it’s so strong with the dark side...I’m worried...aren’t you worried that I’m going to be tempted by the dark side?”

“I mean, it’s likely,” Ahsoka admits. “But you’ve been tempted by the dark side before, by Palpatine on Exegol, right?”

“Yes and...it frightens me how readily I considered it when he suggested doing so could save the people I love,” Rey says ruefully.

Ahsoka exhales deeply again.

“When the Jedi — and me, out of concern for you, not out of a desire to affiliate myself with them, just so we’re clear — came to your aid on Exegol, you rose and told him you were all the Jedi. And you were right about that,” Ahsoka explains. “And when Palpatine said he was all the Sith, he was also right. But you both failed to consider something extremely important in that moment.”

“What’s that?” Rey asked.

“You are _all_ the Jedi. But—” Ahsoka continues, “But Rey...you are also all the Sith. And the same goes for Palpatine, and me, and everyone else. Rey — we all have light and dark in us, and we are _all_ inextricably connected and bound by the same Force that connects all life in the universe, and so we all naturally have dark within us, too. The Jedi and Sith alike have clung to these abstract ideas of the light and dark side as if they are opposites, as if one can exist without the other. And that is why the Force has never known true balance.”

Rey takes a moment to absorb this.

“I...I think I understand,” Rey starts. “I remember, there was a moment on Ahch-To with Luke Skywalker, during our first lesson. He told me to reach out to the Force with my feelings and suddenly, the true nature of the Force was clear to me. The Force is life, it is the island and it’s flowers and green cliffs, but it is also death and decay, which feeds new life. It is warmth as well as cold, peace as well as violence, and between it all...balance, like you said.”

Ahsoka smiles. “See? You’re getting it.”

“Ahsoka...why did you leave the Jedi order, anyway?”

Ahsoka furrows her brows as the painful memory washes over her.

“The Jedi Order had become entrenched in corruption, bureaucracy, and arbitrary and oppressive rules,” she explains. “They falsely accused me of committing a crime I had no part in, and that was the last straw; I left. And what happened to—” Ahsoka closers her eyes and sighs forlornly, “What happened to Anakin only cemented my decision.”

“Sorry — Anakin?” Rey inquires.

Ahsoka turns to look at Rey briefly, surprised. “You don’t know who Anakin Skywalker was?”

“Anakin... _Skywalker_?”

“You probably knew him as Darth Vader,” Ahsoka says darkly. “But before succumbing to the dark side, Anakin was a noble Jedi Knight and I was...I was his Padawan.”

“Wow...Ahsoka, I —”

Ahsoka sniffs but then shakes her head as if to push away the painful emotion washing over her. “We’ve spoken since. He redeemed himself when he sacrificed himself for his son. I’ve made my peace with what happened.”

“Still, that must have been extremely painful for you,” Rey says sympathetically.

“It was,” Ahsoka says softly. “But... that’s in the past,” she adds resolutely, fixing her eyes back to the starfield ahead of them. 

After a moment, Rey interjects. “On Ahch-To, Luke told me he believes the legacy of the Jedi is failure, hypocrisy, and hubris. Do you agree with that, Ahsoka?”

“That’s...a complicated question, sand rat. Yes and no, I guess,” Ahsoka says slowly, thinking carefully about her reply. “I _do_ think the Jedi set out with noble intentions, but... the execution failed miserably, to say the least. I would have gone back to the Jedi Order, if it ever properly reformed itself, but then Luke repeated so many of the Order’s past mistakes, like isolating Younglings and Padawans from their families and forbidding emotional attachments. I don’t see how such profound solitude and loneliness can be good for anyone. I feel like that kind isolation doesn’t help people focus on mastering the Force, it actually just makes them vulnerable and more likely to fall to the dark side, in my opinion. I mean...I saw it happen first hand.”

Ahsoka takes a slow, deep breath as she tries to stave off her tears. Her voice is small and quiet when she speaks again.

“I often wonder if things could have been different for Anakin had he not been separated from his mother as a little boy,” she says ruefully. “And then when he was older...Anakin fell in love, but as you know, the Jedi forbid emotional attachments, so he had to keep his relationship hidden from the Order. He ended up getting married in secret, and when he started having visions of his wife dying, he couldn’t talk to anyone about it. The only person he had to turn to was Palpatine, who manipulated him into believing that Anakin could save his wife by turning to the dark side — which was, of course, a lie. And I also believe isolating Ben is what pushed him to run to Snoke in the end. Cut off from his family and feeling betrayed by his uncle, Snoke was all he had left.”

Rey draws in a shaky breath at the mention of Ben’s name.

“Sorry,” Ahsoka interjects.

“It’s fine,” Rey says softly.

“Anyway,” Ahsoka continues, “I don’t think the Jedi need to die entirely, but I do think if the Order is to continue, some serious changes have to happen. And I believe you and Ben are meant to do just that,” she adds with a smile.

Rey’s mind is reeling as she contemplates all of this. But she’ll have time to contemplate the complexities of the Force and what the future of the Jedi Order should be later. Right now, she just wants to bring Ben home.

* * *

It is raining when they land on Ahch-To.

Although Rey brought the loaned cloak to protect against the elements of the island, she’s been deprived of rain for so long, she keeps the hood down, spinning around like a little girl as she disembarks Ahsoka’s ship, trying to taste the raindrops on her tongue.

She closes her eyes and breathes in the scent of the rain. It’s her favorite smell in all the galaxy. A future outside of a lonely desert exile seems possible for the first time in what feels like forever, and Rey’s eyes become glassy with tears at the thought. 

“So, where’s this cave, anyway?” Rose asks as she steps out of the ship and stands beside Rey. 

“Beneath the island...” Rey replies, still enchanted by the raindrops falling down around her. 

“I trust you remember how to get to it?” Ahsoka asks.

Rey squints her eyes as she searches the horizon.

“I think so,” she says finally.

“Well, then, little sand rat, I think you know that’s a journey you need to take by yourself. But we’ll be right here waiting for you — and Ben,” Ahsoka adds with a wink.

“She’s right,” Rose says, “This is your journey and yours alone.”

Rey nods in understanding.

Rose throws her arms around her friend.

“Good luck,” she says, giving her a kiss on the cheek. She pulls away and tucks a hair behind Rey’s ear.

“And may the Force be with you, Rey,” Ahsoka adds, placing a hand on Rey’s shoulder. Rey squeezes her new friend’s hand and smiles, tears glistening in her warm hazel eyes.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Rose adds. “Don’t worry.”

  
Rey appreciates the reassurance. Rose knows her well.

And with that, heart pounding, Rey descends toward the cliff where she first glanced the sinister cave over a year ago, and jumps down into its foreboding depths, determined to bring Ben Solo back, whatever it takes.

An overwhelming sense of fear and unease overtakes Rey as she is surrounded by the dark, damp, and ominous cave. 

Her shaky breaths echoing, she finds her way to the place where she had seen her reflection way back then, and places her hand against it, seeing herself gazing back once again. She places her forehead against the cold surface where her reflection stares back at her, closing her eyes.

  
She has no idea what she’s doing. She wonders in a terrifying instant if Ahsoka was being truthful with her, or if this had all been a trap, if this really was a way into the World Between Worlds at all. And if it was, how, exactly, was she to get in?

And that’s when she senses it — an overwhelming dark presence in the Force.

But as it races through her veins, she is reminded of her conversation with Ahsoka.

_We all have Light and dark in us, and we are all inextricably connected and bound by the same Force that connects all life in the universe._

She remembers her experience with Luke on the cliff. 

_The Force is life, it is the island and it’s flowers and green cliffs, but it is also death and decay feeding new life. It is warmth as well as cold, peace as well as violence, and between it all...balance._

Rey opens her eyes and she is no longer in the cave. She is surrounded by blackness, punctuated by swirling bits of silver and iridescent stars. And a figure stands before her, with skin white as paper with piercing red eyes and red streaks painted down his face.

“Rey of Jakku,” he says slowly, eyes twisting into a smirk. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“Who are you?” Rey barks, wielding her lightsaber, the yellow blade humming

“Ah, there’s that temper,” he quips, as he effortlessly pulls her saber to him with the Force, leaving Rey incredulous, panicked, breathing heavily. “Not the calm demeanor of a Jedi — no, Rey of Jakku, you have the anger and passion of the dark side.”

_“Who are you?”_ Rey demands.

The man smirks. “I am the Son; I have existed as long as time itself. I _am_ the dark side, dear girl. That foolish Anakin Skywalker thought he killed me during the Clone Wars but...you cannot kill the dark, Rey.”

“What is this place? Where are we?” Rey asks.

“Don’t you know? This,” he says, gesturing at the vast dark expanse around him, “is the World Between Worlds. And I believe Ahsoka Tano has led you to believe you could just waltz in here and bring your precious _Ben Solo_ back. But, that would be just too easy, don’t you think? But do not fret, dear girl — Ben Solo is very much alive and I can bring him back to you — for a price, of course,” he adds with a sinister smirk. 

“What do you want?” Rey asks, her voice beginning to tremble.

The Son smiles broadly. 

  
“You see, Rey of Jakku, with Kylo Ren’s return to the light, it is only natural that darkness must rise to return the balance to the Force. You and a redeemed Kylo Ren cannot co-exist, dear girl; with two such powerful beings on the light side, the Force would be entirely unbalanced. The only way for your precious Ben Solo to return to the realm of the living is for an equal in Kylo Ren’s power to rise on the dark side. And, you see, your new friend Ahsoka has succumbed to the dark side once before...if she joined forces with me, we could be unstoppable.”

“Ahsoka would never turn to the dark side,” Rey spits.

“Mmm, perhaps you’re right,” The Son remarks, “But it will not be her choice to make. You see, Rey, Anakin Skywalker killed me or, at least, destroyed my physical body. What you see before you is merely a projection. I need a vessel through which to return to the living realm. Ahsoka Tano will be that vessel. Bring her to me, and Ben Solo is yours.”

“No!” Rey shouts, “I would _never—”_

“I guess you don’t really want him back, then?” The Son laughs. “But I suppose there is another way...but to raise the dead, Rey... that is a feat only managed by the dark side. Are you willing to go that far to save him?”

Rey pauses, her shaking breaths echoing into the vast glittering darkness that engulfs them.

“What would it take?” she says softly, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

“Ah, there it is,” he says, smirking. “So willing to embrace the dark side to save the one you love. Much like Vader...”

“Vader died saving his son, Luke Skywalker,” Rey cries out fiercely.

“But don’t you know how Anakin Skywalker succumbed to the dark in the first place? Palpatine showed him that he could save his wife using the power of the dark side. And so, too, can you save your precious Ben Solo, dear girl...if you’re willing to succumb to the dark, that is.”

But Rey knows the truth immediately, sensing it in the Force.

A voice echoes in her mind, not unlike the voices of the Jedi that gave her the strength to rise and face Palpatine on Exegol. And somehow, she understands who the mysterious voice belongs to immediately. And it makes perfect sense to her, as she recalls Ahsoka’s words; wherever there is powerful darkness, there is _always_ powerful light to meet it. 

The Son, she realizes, cannot exist without his sister.

“He was lying,” Rey says, suddenly calm, shaking her head. “Just like Palpatine lied to me about being his granddaughter. Anakin’s wife still died. Palpatine deceived Anakin Skywalker, just as you are deceiving me right now. And you are not the only one who can help me find Ben.”

Rey smiles. She knows who she needs. 

“I call upon the Daughter,” Rey declares.

The Son laughs.

“Foolish girl, I _killed_ my sister.”

But as he says this, a glowing figure of a woman with long green hair clad in a long ivory gown appears beside him. There is a gold-tinged light emanating around her.

_“Impossible!”_ The Son bellows.

“What my brother doesn’t understand,” The Daughter says gently, “Is that he and I are not truly alive, only memories sent to guide you, Rey of Jakku...You and Ben Solo are a dyad in the Force...powerful darkness and powerful light...and together, it is your destiny to bring about balance to the Force. This has been foretold for generations. And we knew of this when we died. And I knew this moment would come. And Rey...only when you can embrace both the darkness _and_ the light within you, only _then_ can you bring Ben Solo back.”

The Daughter smiles warmly at Rey.

“The passion and anger I lack is a weakness, just as the empathy and gentleness my brother lacks is weakness. You possess both in spades. The Jedi have unwittingly caused as much destruction as the Sith in their efforts to bring peace to the galaxy. And only by embracing _all_ elements of the Force outside of these failed institutions, will the Force ever know balance, Rey. Then, and only then, will the galaxy ever know peace. Until then, dark forces will always arise as foils to the light, and the endless cycle of war and conflict will continue. “

“What do I need to do, then?” Rey asks. 

“You’ve already done it,” The Daughter says softly.

“I—I don’t know what you mean.”

“You entered this place unafraid of the dark, for you know it already exists inside of you as strongly as the light. That was the key to crossing the bridge to the World Between Worlds, to restoring the Dyad foretold in prophecies of old, Rey. You don’t need me — or him — ” she gives a sidelong glance to her brother, “Or anyone else to bring him back. We are merely memories. But _you_ are here, Rey. And you’ve already found him.”

The Daughter pulls Rey’s light saber from her brother’s grasp and sends it back to Rey. 

“May the Force be with you,” The Daughter adds, before she and The Son disappear back into the nothingness, and Rey is left alone again, in the vast expanse of darkness, swirls of silver spinning around her.

And that’s when she sees him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [ The Daughter](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Daughter)  
> 2\. [ The Son ](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Son)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the first time since Exegol, Rey can feel Ben’s presence in the Force and it is blazingly strong. It makes her feel warm and safe. 
> 
> It is at this moment that Rey realizes she is crying.
> 
> _It’s so nice to see you, sweetheart._
> 
> The sound of his voice echoing through the Force nearly stops Rey’s heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your kind words about this story so far. Your support means the world to me <3 I hope you enjoy this update, and as always, kudos and comments are tremendously appreciated. Thanks for reading!

It doesn’t feel real at first. She’s had this dream plenty of times. 

She notices there is a woman standing beside him. Young and beautiful, dressed in a blue velvet gown, her long dark hair adorned with cascading curls. 

“Hello, Rey. It seems you’ve found her, Ben,” the woman says, flashing a radiant smile at him. She has a gentle voice and kind eyes. The woman shakes her head and turns back to Rey. “I’m sorry, I’m being rude. My name is Padmé Amidala. I am Ben’s grandmother. Ben has told me a lot about you.” Padmé smiles. 

This must be Ben’s grandmother from Naboo, the one Ahsoka was telling her about.

Rey is trying desperately to find the words to form a sentence, but her brain can’t process anything that is happening as her eyes dart back and forth between Ben and Padmé.

“You were right, Ben, she _is_ very beautiful,” Padmé adds, which makes both Ben and Rey’s cheeks flush red. 

For the first time since Exegol, Rey can feel Ben’s presence in the Force and it is blazingly strong. It makes her feel warm and safe. 

It is at this moment that Rey realizes she is crying.

_It’s so nice to see you, sweetheart._

The sound of his voice echoing through the Force nearly stops Rey’s heart. She’s so overwhelmed that she is afraid to make eye contact with him. Meanwhile, Ben is gazing at Rey like she is the only person who has ever existed. 

“My Ani...Anakin...Ben’s grandfather — you might know him as _Darth Vader_ —” Padmé says Anakin’s Sith moniker ruefully, as though it pains her to say it, “We had our future robbed from us by the Sith. But you and Ben still have a chance. Please don’t waste it. Honor Anakin’s legacy. Make us proud...” 

And then Padmé disappears into the nothingness just as the Daughter and Son had only moments ago.

Suddenly, the swirling blackness falls away, and Rey and Ben find themselves on the solid rock floor of the cave on Ahch-To.

“Ben...” Rey says softly. He’s standing just inches away from her and he is so utterly, dizzyingly, beautifully... _real._

She takes a step closer to him, trembling.

  
“Is it...is it really you?” she says softly, trepidatiously reaching out and lightly, ever so lightly, resting a hand on his chest. He wraps his hand around her fingers and closes his eyes. 

The electricity is even stronger than the first moment they touched hands.

The Force sings.

“I will never leave you alone again, sweetheart. I promise,” Ben says reverently, looking her dead in the eyes, and she knows he means it. 

She feels her cheeks flush hearing him call her that — _sweetheart._

And she can’t help it. For the first time since Exegol she does something she had only thought she would get to do again in her dreams — she presses her lips against his and kisses him deeply.

She laces her fingers through his hair as he pulls her in by her waist while she places desperate, needy, open-mouthed kisses against his lips. He responds just as fervently. 

She kisses him back like her life depends on it. 

She’s starting to think it might.

“Rey,” Ben says softly, pulling away from her lips, much to Rey’s chagrin. He presses his forehead against hers. “Sweetheart, I would very much like to continue kissing you, but... I was wondering if we could maybe do that somewhere other than a cave for once.”

Rey laughs. It’s the first time she has truly laughed in months. 

“That’s fair,” she says.

Ben steals another kiss, which makes her laugh again, her hands holding his cheeks as they both smile into the kiss.

He pulls away and brushes a stray hair out of Rey’s face, still damp from the rain. “What is this place, anyway?”

“A cave, beneath the island of Ahch-To...the one I told you about, that night in the hut, the night we...touched hands.”

“Yes, I remember,” he says softly, squeezing her hand as he rests his forehead against hers. 

She closes her eyes, relishing in the electric feeling of his skin against hers. She wishes they could stay in the cave forever. Here, they can just be Rey and Ben. They’re not the former Supreme Leader Kylo Ren and Rey, the last Jedi. They don’t have to explain themselves to anyone. They can just relish in the miraculous joy of each other’s company without the judgments of the outside world. But as soon as they climb out of this cave, that luxury will be stolen from them.

Rey sighs deeply and finally, agonizingly, forces herself to pull away from him and stand up. As they walk toward the exit, she feels Ben slip her hand into hers. 

* * *

When they climb out of the cave, it’s still raining lightly, much to Rey’s delight. She grins as she feels the cool water landing on her cheeks. 

She can feel Ben staring at her.

“What?” she mutters, suddenly embarrassed. “I grew up in the desert — “

“I wasn’t judging you, Rey,” Ben says softly, still gazing at her. No one has ever looked at her the way he does. With such intensity and tenderness. It makes her blush. Rey’s eye’s dart to the ground. 

“You didn’t come here alone,” Ben says after a moment as they continue to walk together. It’s not a question; he must sense Ahsoka in the Force. 

“Oh, that’s Ahsoka,” Rey explains. “It’s...a long story, but she’s...a friend of mine. She is with my friend Rose from the Resistance, waiting for us in her ship.”

“I’m glad you’re not alone,” Ben replies warmly, smiling slightly.

She knows he won’t be happy to hear she’s been all alone on Tatooine for the past four months. But that conversation can wait.

They continue to walk in the direction of Ahsoka’s ship. It is quiet, save for the sound of the rain and the echo of their footfalls on Ahch-To’s uneven terrain.

Even walking a few inches away from her, he still feels devastatingly, achingly far away, and Rey can’t stand it.

She laces her fingers between his and immediately feels a surge of relief. Ben offers an affectionate squeeze in response. 

Rey is grateful for the rain; it camouflages her tears. 

* * *

Rey is nervous as they approach Ahsoka’s ship. She knows Ahsoka and Rose are accepting of Ben, but going back to the Resistance base will be complicated. But she tries not to worry too much about that, at least right now. Right now, he is here with her, and that is all that matters. 

“You must be Ben,” Rose says warmly, smiling as she steps off of Ahsoka’s ship to greet them. Rey feels a wave of gratitude for Rose and her big, compassionate heart. 

As nervous as Rey is, she knows that Ben is of course, 10,000 lightyears more nervous than she is. She can feel his overwhelming unease pulsating through the Force.

_It’s okay, Ben. They’re my friends. And I’m right here._

She feels Ben start to calm down. He squeezes her hand and glances at her briefly, flashing a grateful smile.

Ahsoka, who is leaning with one boot pressed against the doorway of her ship, glances at Rey and Ben’s clasped hands and then back at Rey, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.

Rey narrows her eyes at Ahsoka in annoyance. Ahsoka chuckles to herself.

“I’m Ahsoka,” she says, stepping down the ramp towards Ben and Rey. 

But Rey notices a flicker of recognition in Ben’s eyes when he hears her name.

“Ahsoka — you were my grandfather’s padawan, right?” He asks.

“That’s me,” Ahsoka says proudly. “How is Skyguy these days?”

“He seems at peace,” Ben replies. “And he speaks very highly of you.” 

Ahsoka smiles. 

“I’m glad you got to see him. Anyway, it’s great to finally meet you. Rey has told us _ever_ so much about you, Ben Solo,” she says.

“ _Ahsoka_ ,” Rey mutters through gritted teeth, her face turning red.

“Always the temper with this one,” Ahsoka says, shaking her head.

To Rey’s unending chagrain, Ben chuckles. 

“I mean —” he teases, his lips twisting into a crooked grin.

Rey scoffs, pulling her hand away from Ben. 

“I hate both of you, _just_ so we’re clear,” Rey spits.

“ _Sure_ you do, honey,” Ahsoka calls out as Rey storms onto the ship.

The others follow closely behind. Rey immediately heads toward the cockpit, but Ahsoka stops her.

“Rose can co-pilot,” Ahsoka says. 

Rey turns around, confused.

“I figured you two—” Rey shoots Ahsoka a warning look, not in the mood to hear anymore teasing remarks. “—I figured you two would want some time,” Ahsoka adds softly, her tone suddenly serious. “I’ve got tea in the cupboards of the living quarters, you can help yourselves.”

Rey looks at Ahsoka, this woman offering her tea and hospitality, and remembers what The Son said about her succoming the dark side once. She wonders how someone so funny and kind and charming could have ever gone down that path. But then again, the man who used to call himself Kylo Ren was standing right beside her. She thinks of how quickly she had considered Palpatine and The Son’s offers to go fully to the dark side to save the people she loved, and she realizes how slippery a slope that path can be, and how we all might be closer to it than we would like to think. 

But she puts those thoughts out of her mind because right now, she is going to sit and have tea with Ben Solo, and the beautiful mundanity of that task is all Rey has ever wanted.

“Thank you, Ahsoka,” Rey says softly.

“ _Anyways_ ,” Ahsoka says, pushing Rey and Ben towards the door to the living quarters, which opens automatically once they get close to it. “Have fun,” she says with a wink, because she can’t help herself. Rey doesn’t have the energy to be annoyed anymore. 

The door closes behind Ahsoka, and just like that, Rey and Ben are alone again.

* * *

The air is thick with tension.

  
Rey and Ben are standing close, face-to-face but not quite touching. Ben is gazing at Rey in that soft, tender way that makes her forget how to breathe. She gazes up at him with wide eyes, shoulders rising with each labored breath.

Rey clears her throat, her eyes darting away from Ben and in the direction of the kitchen. “So, uh, the tea?”

“Yes, right — the tea,” Ben agrees. 

“She, um, Ahsoka, she said the tea is in the cupboards —” Rey says as she walks past Ben over to a small kitchenette area and begins fumbling through the cabinets in search of the sachets of tea. 

She is grateful to have a task to focus on. Keeping busy always helps her when she is nervous. 

“Got it!” she says when she finally puts her hands on the tea bags. “And, erm, mugs, there must be mugs somewh—”

Ben is suddenly beside her. She drops the tea bags, startled, and looks up at him.

“Sweetheart,” he says, smiling. “ _Breathe_.”

But this is an impossible request when he is standing so close to her. 

“I—” Rey stammers, “Erm—I dropped the tea bags.”

“I see that,” Ben says, smirking.

Rey darts downwards to pick them up, and Ben bends over to help her. Their hands brush as they go to pick up the same tea bag, and Rey is frozen, gazing into those maddening dark eyes again. 

“What is it?” Ben says gently.

“N—nothing,” Rey retorts, shaking her head as she gathers the rest of the tea. 

They both stand up. Ben brushes a strand of Rey’s hair out of her face.

“You changed your hair,” he tells her. “I like it.”

Rey laughs nervously, setting the tea bags on the counter. 

“Th — thank you I —” Rey stammers, desperate to change the subject, though secretly pleased that he noticed. “We still need to find the tea cups.”

Ben opens a cupboard and peeks in. “Found them.”

“Oh, um excellent, you can, here, you can just —” Rey reaches out to grab one of the cups from him and her fingers brush against his hand once more, sending jolts of electricity across her skin. “Um—” 

Rey finds herself growing dizzy and has forgotten what she was going to say.

“Sweetheart? Are you...are you alright?” Ben asks.

It only makes it worse when he calls her that. 

“Never better,” Rey says, flashing a smile in an effort to convince him. She clears her throat again. “As I was saying...you can, um, you can leave the mugs on the counter, and I’ll—”

At that moment, Rey realizes that, of course, she has no idea how to make tea.

“You’ll what?” Ben asks. He is smiling. He has smiled more in the past two minutes than he has in all the time she has known him. She realizes that _she_ is the one making him smile so much, and the realization overwhelms her.

“Erm—” Rey pauses. “I don’t actually know how to make tea...” she admits, avoiding his eyes.

Ben grins.

“Lucky for you, I happen to be an expert in making tea. Tea is a big part of Alderaanian culture and, as it happens, I am the son of an Alderaanian princess,” Ben says smugly.

“I see...so how do the Alderaanians prepare their tea, O great _Prince of Alderaan_?” she teases, scrunching up her nose.

“Same as anyone else,” Ben says, turning on the sink and filling an electric kettle that Ahsoka had sitting on her counter. “By boiling hot water.”

“And then what?” Rey asks, watching as he places a tea bag in each of the mugs they have set out.

“You wait for the water to boil, and then you pour it over the tea bags...and then you have a nice hot mug of tea.”

“ _Amazing_ ,” Rey says as she watches the electric kettle with keen fascination, studying the bubbles forming in the water and listening to the hiss and hum of the steam. 

“If I had known it was this easy to impress you, I would have offered to make you tea a long time ago.”

Rey turns from the kettle and narrows her eyes at him in annoyance.

“The water’s ready,” he points out, reaching over to pick up the kettle and pouring the hot water over the tea bags. “Don’t sip it yet, it’s really hot.”

“Ben, I might be clueless about the finer things in life like _Alderaanian teas_ , but I’m not an idiot.”

Ben’s expression becomes concerned.

“I didn’t mean—”

  
“ _Ben_ ,” Rey laughs. “I’m kidding. It’s alright.”

Rey glances around the small living quarters and notices the seating area. “Do...do you care to sit?” she asks.

“That would be nice.”

The table is small, round, made of silvery chrome, and surrounded by an upholstered seating area. Rey sits down across from Ben. 

Ben takes a sip of his tea.

“Oh,” he says softly, a hint of a smile twitching at his lips. “It’s Chandrilan tea.”

“Sorry?” Rey asks as she gently blows on the steam swirling out of her small white tea cup.

“From Chandrila — where I grew up,” Ben explains. “It reminds me of being a kid. My mom always made it for me.”

Ben smiles, but his chin quivers a little bit at the mention of his mother. Rey instinctively reaches her hand out to him.

Rey thinks of a young Leia fixing a little Ben Solo a cup of Chandrilan tea. She smiles at the thought. She realizes there’s still so much about Ben she doesn’t know. She wants to learns more about the little boy who drank Chandrilan tea with his parents.

Ben laces his fingers with Rey’s and starts absentmindedly tracing the back of her hand with his thumb.

Rey’s resulting sharp intake of breath is louder than she would like it to be.

They sit in silence for another long moment.

“Are you still angry with me?” Ben finally says, his voice quiet and serious. “Like you were when I reached out to you. You remember, don’t you? I think you thought it was a dream. But I remember how angry you were.”

“I—” Rey pulls her hand back. “I don’t know.” But her tears give her away. 

Ben slides over so he is seated next to her, his face wrought with concern.

“Rey?”

She lets out a sob and buries her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around him as the hot tears rain down her face.

Ben pulls her in close as he strokes her hair. It is still slightly damp from the rain on Ahch-To.

He places a gentle kiss on top of her head, which only makes Rey cry harder. 

He lets her cry as long as she needs to, rubbing her back with tender, soothing caresses.

When she has worn herself out, she turns her head to the side and rests it on Ben’s chest.

“I don’t want to be angry with you,” she says finally, sniffling. She sits up so she is facing him. “And, _Maker,_ you make it so _kriffing_ hard to stay angry with you, Ben Solo.”

And she can’t stop herself from doing what she has wanted to do from the moment they stepped into Ahsoka’s living quarters.

She grabs his face with both of her hands and kisses him.

Ben murmurs her name into the kiss, his hand cupping her cheek and then gliding through her hair and down to the small of her back as he pulls her closer to him. 

Rey pulls away slightly, still sniffling and wiping back tears. Ben’s eyes, tender and adoring, search her face. He gingerly wipes each falling tear and kisses the places on her cheeks where they have fallen. 

“I’m so sorry,” Rey says, desperately trying to stop the seemingly endless flow of tears. “It’s just — you’re _here_ and —” Rey strokes his cheek. He closes his eyes, drawing in a jagged breath, “—and you’re just so _real_ and I—”

She stops herself from saying out loud the one thought that is swirling in her mind and dancing on the tip of her tongue.

Ben is gazing at her, patient and adoring, and of course she loves him. She loves him more than she can bear. 

She sighs, resting her head beneath his chin. “I just want to stay here with you forever,” she murmurs.

“I know, sweetheart. I do, too.” He closes his eyes, breathing her in, wrapping his arms tightly around her small frame. 

Her tears finally stop falling. For now at least, she is finally warm and safe inside his arms. It is the only place she ever wants to be.

* * *

She doesn’t know how long she’s been asleep when she hears the doors open. 

Rey bolts upward and sees Rose entering the living quarters. 

“Oh, uh — hi guys, I hope I wasn’t, um, interrupting anything—”

“Oh, no—” Rey stammers.

“We weren’t —”

“I just fell asleep—”

Rose rolls her eyes.

“Relax, guys. Ahsoka just needs some caf. She flew 12 hours straight here and is about to fly 12 hours back, she needs the energy.”

“Don’t you think that’s a bit dangerous?” Rey asks as she rubs the sleep from her eyes. “I could—”

“Ah, because you’re so alert and energetic, Rey? You’ve been up just as long as she has and you’re kind of going through like a whole thing right now...”

“I could fly the ship,” Ben offers suddenly. “My — my dad taught me,” he adds with a smile. 

“I’d have to check with Ahsoka,” Rose says, “I’ll be right back.” The door opens again and shuts behind her.

Rey sighs, sleepy and content as she turns towards Ben. 

“Ben Solo,” she murmurs as she caresses his cheek, her voice light and lilting from her exhausted delirium, “you came back to me.”

Ben smiles.

“I did,” he says softly.

“I think,” she yawns, stretching her arms above her head before comfortably settling them around his neck, “I think I am still angry with you, but I am too tired to be angry anymore tonight.”

“I’m glad,” he murmurs. 

Rey closes her eyes again, letting her head fall against his shoulder. 

She wants to go back to sleep in his arms, but he will have to get up momentarily if Ahsoka decides to let him fly her ship, which, for all their sakes, Rey hopes she does, because attempting to fly through hyperspace when sleep deprived is never a good idea. 

Rey hears the door open again, and she begrudgingly forces herself to sit up again.

“So, Ben, Ahsoka has agreed to let you fly her ship — _very reluctantly_ , I might add. She wants to make it abundantly clear that it’s only because she is very tired, and agrees that it would be in the best interest of all parties involved,” Rose informs them. “And Rey, Ahsoka said you can sleep on one of her extra bunks.”

Rey sighs, and it comes out sounding more forlorn than she would like. 

_I’ll still be here when you wake up, sweetheart, don’t worry._

She gives Ben a halfhearted smile as she stands up, and he follows closely behind. Rey turns to look up at him and their eyes meet again.

“Sorry — where exactly am I flying to?” Ben asks.

Rose and Rey exchange a nervous look.

“Ajan Kloss...” Rose says slowly. “The Resistance base.”

“Are — are you sure that’s such a good idea? I’m not exactly their favorite person.”

“Oh, Rey explained everything."

“They understand I’m bringing Ben Solo, the son of Han and Leia, back to the base not—not, _Kylo Ren_ ,” Rey adds ruefully. “They still aren’t thrilled about the idea, of course, but they’re trying...for my sake and, I think, above all...for Leia.”

Rey can see the tears forming in Ben’s eyes at the mention of his mother’s name.

“Oh,” he says softly. “Thank you, Rey...for explaining— for— just— thank you.”

“Of course,” Rey murmurs, stepping towards him. 

“Um,” Rose says awkwardly, sliding backwards toward the door “Yeah, so, just, Ahsoka’s ready whenever you are.” The door opens behind Rose and she exits through it. 

“How much—how much did you tell them?” Ben asks.

“When I said I told them everything, I meant literally everything. Including,” Rey adds quietly, “The fact that we kissed on Exegol.”

“Oh.”

Rey smiles. “I mean...I figured I might as well get that bit out of the way...they would figure it out pretty quickly, anyway.”

“Would they, now?” Ben asks teasingly, drawing closer to her. “And how is that?”

Rey narrows her eyes. “You know we would give ourselves away quite quickly. I mean, you keep trying to hold my hand.”

“I believe _you_ keep trying to hold _my_ hand, Rey—”

Rey rolls her eyes.

“Either way,” she spits. “They would figure it out and you know it.”

Rey sighs.

“I was very comfortable, you know,” she mutters, sounding very cross. She yawns again.

Ben chuckles.

“I know you were,” he says, “and believe me, I would have gladly let you sleep in my arms for as long as you needed to, Rey, but Ahsoka shouldn’t be flying through hyperspace on no sleep.” 

“I know,” Rey sighs. 

Ben reaches out and gently rests his hand against her cheek.

“You’re so beautiful,” he says suddenly.

She blushes and smiles bashfully before lifting herself up on her tiptoes to place a kiss on his lips.

“We should ask Ahsoka where her extra bunk is so you can get some sleep,” he adds gently, his fingers combing through her hair affectionately.

“Oh, I know where it is, it’s not my first time on her ship,” Rey explains, yawning again. “It’s just around the corner,” she adds, gesturing to another door behind them.

“I see,” Ben says. 

A tense silence follows, leaving Rey and Ben staring at each other again with ragged breaths.

Ben smiles crookedly as he slowly leans down towards Rey and tenderly strokes her cheek. Rey closes her eyes as his lips find hers again. She almost wishes he didn’t kiss her at all, because now she doesn’t want him to stop. The kiss is deep and passionate as they both grow less tentative with one another.

When Ben’s tongue brushes against the tip of her own and Rey lets out a tiny, desperate moan.

Ben pulls away and it feels like agony.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he says with a smirk.

And with that he goes through the automatic doors and toward the cockpit.

Rey is left feeling dizzy, disoriented, and gasping for air. She leans back against the sink for support.

That’s when Ahsoka walks in. She chuckles. 

“Uh, you alright there, sand rat?” 

“I—” Rey stammers, still trying to catch her breath. “Yes, I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Never better.”

Ahsoka laughs. “You two didn’t, um... defile my living quarters, did you?”

“ _Ahsoka_ ,” Rey gasps, mortified.

  
“I’m _kidding_. Relax, Rey,” Ahsoka says, shaking her head as she walks toward the door to the captain’s quarters. “We both need to get some rest.” Ahsoka stops and musses up Rey’s hair as she passes her. “Sleep well, sand rat.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [Chandrila](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Chandrila)  
> 2\. [ Caf ](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Caf)  
> 3\. [ Chandrilan Tea ](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Chandrilan_tea)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey’s breath catches in her throat as she realizes that not only has Ben Solo come back to her, but for the first time in months, there is a possibility of a future with him, a future with bakeries in fancy places like Coruscant, a place she never imagined she would see when she was a scavenger on Jakku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I know it's been a while; I got busy with other WIPs and forgot to update this one for a bit, but it's back now! I hope you enjoy this update, and kudos and comments are always tremendously appreciated it you do<3

Rey is unsure how much time has passed when her rumbling stomach wakes her up. She doesn’t know what Ahsoka has stocked in the ship’s kitchen, but she’s certain whatever it is, it must be better than a womp rat.

When the doors to the living quarters slide open, she’s bewildered to see Ben sitting at the table, nursing a cup of caf. 

Rey blushes, immediately self-conscious of her just-rolled-out-of-bed appearance. She instinctively tries to smooth her hair, and notices with a panicked expression that her sleeve has slid off her shoulder. She pulls it up hastily, face burning bright red. 

Ben, for his part, has a delighted grin on his face.

“Well, good morning, Rey,” he says.

“What are you — I thought — I thought you were flying the ship?” Rey stammers, still anxiously trying to fix her hair and straighten out her clothing.

“I was,” he says, taking a sip of his caf. “But apparently Ahsoka set an alarm, and after getting in 6 hours of rest, insisted she was awake enough to pilot her ship, and demanded I let her. And I can’t really argue with the captain of the ship.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Rey says, smiling. “Ahsoka is a force to be reckoned with.”

“She certainly is,” Ben agrees. “How exactly did you meet her again?”

Rey’s stomach grumbles again.

“I’ll tell you about it once I’ve eaten,” Rey says.

“Fair enough,” Ben replies. “Ahsoka said she made some scones for the journey, before she picked you up on Tatooine,” Ben says as he begins walking towards the refrigerator. “I also have a lot of questions about what you were doing on kriffing _Tatooine_ , by the way.”

He stops in front of Rey. “You look... very cute when you’ve just woken up, by the way,” he adds with a smirk, before stealing a kiss.

Rey flushes bright red again.

“You’re also cute when you blush,” he adds, pulling her chin up with his forefinger and giving her another brief, tender kiss on the lips.

Rey smiles in spite of herself.

“What’s a scone, anyway, Ben?” she asks, pulling away from him to open the refrigerator, her hunger for food unfortunately overpowering her hunger for him. 

“It’s a type of pastry,” he explains, retrieving a plate from the middle shelf of an otherwise barren fridge.

“Pastry?” Rey asks, tilting her head.

Realization dawns on Ben’s face. 

“Oh, it’s, um...” Ben searches for words. “I guess you’ll just have to try it. They have particularly good pastries at this one bakery on Coruscant — and the best scones in all the galaxy, in my opinion. My parents used to take me there. I’ll have to take you sometime,” he adds with a smile.

Rey’s breath catches in her throat as she realizes that not only has Ben Solo come back to her, but for the first time in months, there is a possibility of a _future_ with him, a future with bakeries in fancy places like Coruscant, a place she never imagined she would see when she was a scavenger on Jakku.

She suddenly recalls her vision, remembering the green planet with the waterfalls, with... their _children_ , and she feels tears prickle in her eyes.

“Rey, are you alright?” Ben says suddenly, snapping her out of her reverie.

“I’m alright,” she says softly. “Just...thinking.”

_Alright_ is a gross understatement for all of the things Rey is feeling right now.

And there it is again, that tense silence that always always seems to fall between them, making Rey self-conscious of her labored breathing, which feels embarrassingly loud. But then, Ben also seems to be breathing heavily, as they hold each other’s gaze just a little too long.

Rey clears her throat.

“Anyway,” she says, pointing to the plate of scones, “that’s... a _pastry_ , then?”

Ben smiles and nods.

“Fascinating,” Rey says.

Ben is gazing at her, an intense adoration on his face, and she’s blushing again.

“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” she mutters, staring down at her boots on the chrome floor.

“It’s just — the way you get so excited about things like electric kettles and pastries,” he says, shaking his head and smiling.

Rey looks up, and he is still looking at her like _that,_ and the tense silence fills the air again. 

“What about it?” Rey asks.

“It’s — you’re just —” Ben stammers, trying to find the right words. “I—” he swallows and stops short suddenly.

“You what?”

Ben sighs. “I just...I think everything about you is... wonderful, Rey,” he says finally. 

Rey’s blazing blush is spreading to her ears now, and there’s a warmth pooling in her chest like nothing she’s ever felt. 

“Ben,” she says, trying to suppress a grin that’s twitching at the corners of her mouth. 

“What?” he asks. 

Unsure how to respond to such affectionate talk, Rey stands up on her tip toes and gives him a quick, gentle kiss on his lips. When her feet return to the floor, she anxiously stares at the ground again, her hands fidgeting behind her back nervously.

Something unsaid is hanging palpably in the air between them when Rey’s stomach grumbles again, this time loudly enough that it echoes through the living quarters of Ahsoka’s ship.

“You need to eat,” Ben says suddenly. “I think scones taste best when they’re heated up a little,” he adds, reaching into the cupboards to grab a plate and placing two of the scones on it before sliding the plate in the microwave. “I also think they taste best with a cup of caf,” he adds. “There’s still some left over in the pot I made.”

Rey is overwhelmed again. He is... _taking care of her_ in a way no one ever has before. It is so simple, the way he’s preparing a meal for her like this, but there’s something so tender, so intimate about it, that she feels tears threaten to fall from her eyes again.

“Sweetheart...?” Ben starts to say, stepping toward her.

Rey sniffs. “Sorry, it’s nothing, I’m fine,” she says dismissively. “I’ve actually never had caf.”

Ben’s eyes are compassionate but leaning a little too close towards pity for Rey’s taste.

“I’m not _so_ sheltered that I’ve never had the chance to try caf, Ben,” she says curtly. “They had it on the Resistance base, but it never really appealed to me. I have enough trouble sleeping as it is, most of the time, and my mind never slows down —” Rey shakes her head. “Anyway. It just never appealed to me, however...things are a little different now.”

She looks up at Ben, and now she is the one whose eyes are tinged with fierce adoration.

“I think I slept better than I ever have last night,” she says softly. “So...I think I’ll try some,” she adds with a smile, moving closer to Ben as she bites her lower lip, looking up at him with wide eyes.

That’s when Ben drops the mug he had just gotten out for her onto the floor, shattering it into pieces.

“ _Kriff_ ,” Ben mutters under his breath. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Ahsoka has a broom anywhere?”

Rey rolls her eyes, folding her arms across her chest with a smug look on her face as she lifts up the broken pieces with the Force and guides them gently into the garbage can.

Ben is immediately embarrassed. Rey, meanwhile, is quite pleased with herself.

He returns her smug look, staring her dead in the eyes as he floats another mug out of the cupboard and lands it in front of her on the counter.

“Show-off,” Rey mutters, pouring herself a cup of caf without breaking eye contact with Ben.

That’s when she feels herself being tugged by the Force, her feet gliding across the floor as he pulls her into his arms.

Rey sighs dramatically.

“You are the worst, Ben Solo,” she informs him, narrowing her eyes at him as she leans in to kiss his lips.

“Says the woman who just kissed me,” he mutters as he pulls away all too quickly, leaving Rey aching with want, as usual. “Your caf is going to get cold, sweetheart,” he remarks, tilting his head in the direction of her mug.

Rey is still dizzy from his kiss, from the way he ever so smugly and smoothly pulled her into his arms. He is his father’s son through and through, Rey thinks to herself.

“Oh,” Rey says, disoriented. She clears her throat, “Right.”

Ben looks altogether too pleased with himself, she thinks, and she narrows her eyes again, thoroughly annoyed with his self-satisfied expression.

She reaches over and lifts the hot, deep brown liquid to her lips, still not breaking eye contact with Ben. She takes a tentative sip and then immediately spits the bitter, caustic drink back into her cup.

“That—” she coughs, scrunching up her face. “Is absolutely _disgusting_.”

Ben laughs.

“Black caf is often an acquired taste,” he says, chuckling to himself. “Let’s see if Ahsoka has any cream and sugar.”

He rummages through the cupboards and retrieves a bowl of sugar and then checks the fridge, where he successfully locates a bottle of cream.

He finds a spoon in one of Ahsoka’s drawers and mixes the cream and sugar in with Rey’s caf.

“Try that,” he says softly, handing her the cup.

She is overwhelmed again by the way he is caring for her. _It’s just a stupid cup of caf_ , _Rey_ , she thinks to herself. 

But no one has ever fixed her a stupid cup of caf before.

When she sips the drink this time, it is much more pleasant, with a sweet and creamy flavor that is infinitely more appealing than the bitter, acidic burn of the black caf. She smiles. “ _Much_ better.”

“I’m glad, sweetheart.”

She hopes that eventually she will stop blushing every time he calls her that. 

Ben retrieves their scones from the microwave and uses the Force to send them floating over to the table.

Rey rolls her eyes.

“Really, Ben?” 

Ben responds with another crooked, smug grin.

He will be the death of her, she thinks as they walk over to the dining table. Rey sits down across from him.

“Try the scone,” Ben says as he eagerly pushes the plate towards her

Rey, who is thoroughly starving now, takes a greedy bite, scattering crumbs all over the table and all over her clothes, but she doesn’t seem to notice or care. This makes Ben grin, for some reason.

“And?” he asks. “How is it?”

“It’s _delicious,”_ she says, mouth still full, making her words sound more like “ _ifs elishiz.”_

Ben seems thoroughly delighted by this.

He pushes his plate towards her. “Take mine,” he says softly. “I’m not very hungry.”

“Are you sure?” she asks as she continues to tear through the pastry. 

“Absolutely,” Ben says.

“Thank you,” she replies, already finished with the first scone and shoving the other one into her mouth.

There is nothing dainty about the way she tears through the scones, but she’s so hungry she doesn’t care. When you’ve spent practically your whole life starving, eating like a polite young lady is the last thing on your mind. 

Ben does not seem to mind at all, though, and is, in fact, beaming at her. 

“ _What,_ Ben?” she asks as she wipes the crumbs from her face with the back of her hand.

“Nothing,” he murmurs, still gazing at her, still making her blush, still driving her absolutely insane with those dark eyes, with his smug grin, with those large hands dwarfing his caf mug, making her mind drift to things other than pastries and caffeinated beverages...

“ _Anyway_ ,” Rey says, trying to direct her thoughts elsewhere, “you had asked about Ahsoka.”

  
“I did,” Ben says as he takes another sip of his caf. 

_Stop staring at his lips,_ Rey thinks to herself as her eyes wander to wear his full, pink mouth rests on the edge of the caf mug, her mind drifting back to the way he kissed her the night before, and then, infuriatingly, to all the other places she wants him to put his lips...

Rey takes a large sip of her caf, burning her mouth slightly, grateful for the sudden, painful sensation snapping her out of her inappropriate stream of thought.

“Is... everything alright, sweetheart?” Ben asks, his face growing concerned.

_Everything is absolutely_ not _alright, Ben Solo_ , Rey thinks to herself, wondering why he must always speak to her in such a gentle, low murmur that gives her goosebumps on the back of her neck.

She’s not sure if taking his hand will make all of this better or worse, but she decides not touching him is still infinitely more agonizing than the maddening thoughts intruding into her brain.

She reaches across the table and finds that when her fingers brush his hand, sending jolts of electricity to every inch of her skin, it makes things somehow better and worse at the same time. 

But the way he instinctively squeezes back and begins to absentmindedly trace circles on the back of her hand the way he did the night before _does_ help to steady her.

“I’m fine,” she says finally with a deep sigh. “So, Ahsoka,” Rey starts. “She showed up out of nowhere the other day at the Mos Eisley cantina—”

“Rey,” Ben says, bewildered, “What on Earth were you doing in a place like the _Mos Eisley cantina_ ? My dad told me a _lot_ of stories about that place, a lot of shady characters hang out around there—”

“It’s been...a long four months,” Rey mumbles ruefully.

“Why were you even on kriffing _Tatooine_ in the first place, Rey?” Ben demands.

Rey feels tears prickle in her eyes again.

“I—I’m sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t mean to —” Ben says softly. 

“It’s alright, Ben,” she says softly, sniffing. She doesn’t know how she’ll manage to say the next part. She pulls her hand away and moves over so she’s sitting beside him, head resting on his chest. He automatically puts his arm around her. 

She’s been so focused on being angry at him for leaving her all alone, she hadn’t considered how it will make him feel to know that after literally sacrificing his life for her, she was wasting away on Tatooine.

He kisses the top of her head, which gives her the strength to continue.

“Ben,” she says softly, letting her tears fall as she traces patterns on his sweater with the tips of her fingers, too overwhelmed to make eye contact. “When — when we kissed on Exegol, I — I had a vision.”

  
Rey draws in a shaky breath.

“And Ben, I — I saw our future together.” She feels him pull his arms around her tighter.

His voice is warm and affectionate.

“What did you see, Rey?” He asks as he delicately strokes her hair.

Rey tries to steady her breathing and stop her tears, but she is struggling.

“Shh,” Ben says, gently guiding her chin upwards with his hand. He delicately wipes away her tears. “I’m here now. You don’t have to be sad anymore. Tell me what you saw in our future, Rey.”

She smiles and closes her eyes, laughing slightly amidst her sniffling.

“We were...we were together on a lush and green planet,” she says, her voice filled with wonder. She strokes his cheek tenderly. “And Ben, I saw...I saw...our children swimming under waterfalls” —as she says this, Ben grins as widely and blissfully as she did after they first kissed on Exegol. Rey laughs a little again through her tears. She closes her eyes, reliving the vision in her mind. Ben is gently running stroking her cheek with his thumb as he says this, still smiling, his attention rapt. “I saw...you and I falling asleep together to the sound of the rain. I saw days spent under the shade of majestic evergreens with our friends. And when I opened my eyes, you were there, in my arms, smiling, and I thought, I want to make him smile like this everyday for the rest of my life—”

Now tears are glistening in Ben’s eyes, too.

“And then, just like that—” Rey chokes out a sob. She can’t finish the sentence. She buries her face in his chest and cries and cries while he rubs soothing circles onto her back, kissing the top of her head, holding her tightly. And eventually the pain in her chest subsides as she breaths him in, feeling his heartbeat, feeling his gentle, affectionate caresses, remembering what he had said moments before — that she doesn’t have to feel sad anymore, because he is somehow, miraculously, beautifully, _here._

She lifts her head up and kisses him, and just like that, she feels warm and light and safe again.

“So anyway,” she continues softly, as Ben stares at her with those tender, gentle, adoring eyes of his, “As you can imagine, I couldn’t go back to Takodana or Ahch-To or any other beautiful green planet because it would just serve as a constant reminder of...of what I had lost.”

Rey smiles slightly, a hint of sadness in her eyes as she strokes his cheek. 

“So,” she sniffs, looking down at her hands, which she begins to fidget with nervously. “I set out for Tatooine, alone, not even bothering to tell my friends where I was going because, I mean, I never told them about...about our connection through the Force, about what happened on the Supremacy, about any of it. And at that point, explaining it felt impossible. And if I hung around, I knew my misery would be written all over my face, and they would ask questions that I just couldn’t answer. So...I decided to disappear. I don’t know it just...it just made the most sense at the time.”

She looks up at Ben again, expecting him to judge her, to be angry with her for wasting his sacrifice, but she should know better than that by now.

He takes her fidgeting hands into his and stills them.

“I understand,” he says softly. “I...I just hate knowing you were all alone and suffering,” he adds ruefully, “but...I get it.”

“Thank you, Ben,” Rey says, her voice no more than a whisper. She kisses him again. “But looking back, I know it sounds selfish. You...gave up your life for me, and what did I do with it? I threw it away and now you probably think I don’t even deserve —”

“ _Rey,”_ Ben says fiercely. “Don’t _ever_ say that. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I mean, not leaving you alone, but I — just — I just — _Rey_ ,” Ben lets out a choked sob. “Holding your —lifeless body,” his voice is tortured and raspy, “never in my life have I known deeper, more profound, more unbearable pain than what I felt in that moment. I knew I had the power to save you, and that was all that mattered. I couldn’t leave you for dead, alone on the ground on a Sith planet, Rey — how could I? How could I not save you if I had the chance? And besides, who am I to judge how you processed your grief?” he chuckles darkly, “After what you went through, with your parents leaving, to be left all alone again...it makes sense. And it destroys me to know that you suffered such pain because of me. But Maker knows you probably coped with it better than I would have, were I in your position. And all told, it was only four months. I think, with time, you might have felt ready to go back to your friends.”

“Maybe,” Rey says in a small voice, although she’s not terribly convinced. “Ben,” she adds, “How did you manage to get out of that pit?”

“I had to get back to you, Rey...the moment I sensed you fade from the Force—” and now Ben is the one wracked with full body sobs.

“Ben,” Rey says tenderly, kissing his forehead, his cheeks, his lips, letting him rest his head on her chest as she strokes his hair. “I’m right here.”

“I know,” he manages, his lips brushing against her neck, making Rey forget how to breathe and lose her train of thought entirely. 

Ben finally sits up and looks at her again.

“Anyway,” he continues, “I had to get back to you." He shakes his head. “That was the only thought in my mind as I forced myself to stand up, to scale the pit. Every bone in my body was broken, but it didn’t matter, Rey, it didn’t matter, because —”

“Because why, Ben?” 

He pulls away from her slightly.

“Don’t you know, Rey?” Ben asks softly.

Rey stares back with wide, imploring eyes.

Ben smiles. He traces her temples, her cheeks, her lips with the back of his hand. Rey closes her eyes, and he leans in to give her a kiss. When he pulls away, Rey is still gazing at him expectantly, nervously, adoringly. 

“I love you,” he says finally, tears falling for his eyes. “Rey...I love you so much.”

Rey is crying now too, but she is also smiling, smiling wider than she ever has.

He’s still looking at her intently, a nervous expression evident in his glassy eyes. 

“ _Ben_ ,” Rey says in that same delighted, breathless way she said his name back on Exegol, before saying what she has been thinking from the moment she first pressed her lips to his. “I love you, too.”

And Ben kisses her more ardently than he ever has, more passionately than he had even last night, their tongues finding each other desperately, as they gasp for breath, their needy, hungry hands gliding across each other, everywhere at once. Rey begins to wonder if you can die from longing.

They pull away, reluctantly, their need for oxygen temporarily usurping their need to devour one another. 

They’re both blushing, suddenly embarrassed by what had just transpired between them. 

After a moment, Rey starts to laugh, blissful as she rests her forehead against Ben’s. She realizes she has found her way onto his lap. Her eyes widen as she feels what this development has done to Ben.

But then she’s smiling again, drunk on the kiss, on their love, and she nuzzles her head into his neck, sighing contentedly as he kisses the top of her head. 

That’s when they hear the door open and Ahsoka bursts in.

“Um —” Ahsoka looks up and down at the position Rey and Ben are in, “you may not have noticed while you were busy doing —” Ahsoka dramatically gestures toward Ben and Rey and Rey flushes bright red, sliding off Ben’s lap. Ben appears equally mortified by the intrusion. “But we’ve landed, so you should head towards the door...uh, whenever you’re ready,” she adds snidely, rolling her eyes and swearing under her breath as she marches back out the door. 

  
Once Ahsoka is gone, Ben pulls Rey back to him.

“I wish we could just stay here forever,” he says softly.

Rey sighs, tracing his face with her hand. “I know.” Reluctantly, she stands up, offering Ben her hand. “But your Uncle Chewie told me he can’t _wait_ to see you, Ben, and it would be awfully rude to keep him waiting, don’t you think?”

Ben is suddenly overcome with emotion. He takes Rey’s hand, and they make their way to the exit, finally facing the rest of the world, whether they’re ready to or not.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Whatever happened in the World Between Worlds... it all suddenly felt vastly unimportant once I...once I got what I came for,” she adds softly, glancing shyly at Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for your comments on the last chapter! I hope you enjoy this update, and comments are always tremendously appreciated, they help me know if people are enjoying the story and if I should continue to update! Thanks for reading <3

Chewie, Finn, Poe, and the droids are all waiting outside the ship when they land. Rose is the first to exit the ship, followed by Ahsoka. Rey and Ben hang back for a moment.

Their hands are still clasped and Rey squeezes Ben’s hand tightly. 

_ I love you, Ben, and I’m right here. Everything will be alright, I promise _ , Rey reassures him through the Force.

Ben squeezes her hand back gratefully and kisses her forehead. 

He takes a deep breath and nods to indicate that he’s ready. 

They walk off the ship together.

Rey is immediately self-conscious of their clasped hands; she is quickly learning that she finds public displays of affection embarrassing, particularly in their unusual situation. But she keeps holding onto Ben’s hand for his sake, knowing he needs the support. She feels his palms growing sweaty and he squeezes her hand almost too tightly.

_ I’m right here _ , her voice echoes to him through the Force again, soft and comforting. She hopes he can feel the reassurance she’s trying to send him, and she feels his hand relax somewhat.

She can’t quite read the expressions on Finn and Poe’s faces; they seem excited to see Rey again, but also extremely trepidatious about her companion, which, she supposes, is to be expected.

Chewbacca pushes past Finn and Poe and the trio of droids. He and Ben share a long, meaningful look. 

Rey looks up at Ben and can see the tears forming in his dark eyes, his chin starting to quiver.

Chewie’s howl is somehow forlorn and joyous all at once. 

Ben lets go of Rey’s hand and takes a step towards his uncle.

The others are completely silent as they watch the wookie and the young man.

Chewie groans again, tilting his head to the side, before stepping forward and throwing his arms around his nephew. 

Ben’s face is wrought with pain and regret as the Wookiee tenderly wraps his arms around him, placing a large paw on Ben’s head.

Tears are falling freely from Ben’s eyes, and Chewie’s eyes are closed, but his expression is peaceful, loving, forgiving.

After a long moment, Ben pulls away.

He bows his head, one hand grasping his opposite elbow. 

“Chewie, I — “ Ben says softly.

Chewie puts his hand on Ben’s shoulder and groans something that seems to move Ben tremendously.

“Thank you,” Ben says quietly, tears still pouring down his face, and the old friends hold each other’s gaze for another long moment.

Chewie takes a step back, and 3PO’s voice cuts through the silence.

“As I live and breathe, is that _Young Master_ _Ben Solo_?” 

R2 who is, of course, following closely behind 3PO, chitters excitedly.

3PO pushes past Chewie to approach his old friend.

Ben smiles. “Good to see you, 3PO.”

“If only Mistress Leia were here...” 3PO says solemnly.

Ben’s chin begins to quiver again.

“There, there, Master Ben,” 3PO says reassuringly. “We all miss the General gravely.”

R2 beeps sadly to confirm.

“But,” 3PO adds, “I don’t think Mistress Leia would want us to waste time fretting over her, particularly on the joyous occasion of her son’s return.”

Ben appears to be overwhelmed by the displays of kindness from his old friends, and Rey knows he probably doesn’t believe he deserves their love and forgiveness. His face is still wrought with emotion, tears flowing freely from his eyes. 

Rey takes his hand again to comfort him.

“And Rey! It is always a delight to see you,” 3PO exclaims.

Rey smiles.

“Same to you, 3PO,” she replies.

R2 beeps happily, and BB8 rolls around behind him and enthusiastically greets Rey. The droid pauses for a moment in front of Ben, apprehensive around the stranger, before finally making a delighted beep and rolling around in a circle at Ben’s feet.

Rey grins. “It likes you, Ben.”

Poe clears his throat. Rey sighs, and the droids and Chewie make way for the co-generals to make their uneasy approach.

“Ben, this is General Poe Dameron,” Rey says in a more formal tone than she had used to address the droids.

Poe extends his hand reluctantly, and Ben seems similarly hesitant as he reaches out to shake it. 

“Thank you for, um, allowing me to visit your base, General,” Ben says awkwardly.

“The pleasure is all ours,” Poe mutters sardonically. 

Rey shoots him a warning look.

“And this,” Poe pauses briefly to give his fiance a coy smile, “Is my co-general, Finn.”

Finn apprehensively glances at Rey before sighing and extending his hand to Ben.

“Good to meet you, um, Ben,” Finn says stiffly.

“Same to you,” Ben replies, his tone also stilted. 

“Perhaps you could give Ben a tour of the base,” Rey offers, turning to Poe.

Poe sighs deeply. 

“Sure,” he retorts, just as sardonic as before. “Why not.”

“Oh lighten up, Poe,” Ahsoka snaps. She, along with Rose, had been standing just behind Finn and Poe.

The droids and Chewbacca follow behind the group, and 3PO catches up to Ben.

“Oh, Master Ben, we have ever so much to catch up on!” 3PO exclaims.

“Um...why does...why does he keep calling me  _ Master? _ ” Ben mutters to Rey under his breath.

“I mean...3PO was your mother’s droid, wasn’t he? So it makes sense he would be passed onto you,” Rey whispers.

Ben turns back to the droid.

“I suppose we do, 3PO,” he says with a crooked smile.

As they walk towards the cave that serves as the main building, Rey hears Poe muttering to Rose.

“And we’re absolutely sure this isn’t some elaborate ruse, and he isn’t just going to report back to whatever is left of the First Order with the location of our base and all our intel—”

Rey clears her throat dramatically.

Poe turns around and Rey smiles contemptuously. Poe sighs dramatically and turns back around.

Rey offers Ben’s hand another squeeze. He is stiff and nervous, eyes focused straight ahead.

Orange suited Resistance soldiers pass by their group, some offering Rey enthusiastic waves, others eyeing Ben suspiciously. Small transport vehicles buzz by, and their path is flanked on either side by various X-wings.

The jungle moon is humid and steamy, and there are green shrubs underfoot and a vast canopy of green trees overhead. Rey is briefly distracted by the foliage overhead, mesmerized by the sun poking through the trees as she gazes upwards with wide eyes.

Her cheeks get hot as she feels Ben staring at her again. 

“What?” she mutters under her breath.

Ben smiles. “Nothing...it’s just...” he pauses. “You,” he says finally. 

Rey’s cheeks go blotchy and red and her eyes dart back to the ground.

The group steps into the dark natural limestone cave, punctuated by the bright lights of the command center.

Rey is less in her head this time, and she notices how much the cave has been built up since she left for Tatooine. There’s more lighting provided by tall light posts. Leia’s massive ship is still parked inside the cave, along with other larger ships scattered throughout.

“So,” Poe says gesturing broadly, “We’ve got the Command Center here to the left, that little area over there with the table and all the books, that’s where Rey would hang out and read all the old Jedi books, or whatever,” Poe explains. 

“We left it there in hope you would come back eventually,” Finn adds warmly, turning to Rey.

“So anyway, Master Ben,” 3PO, who is still walking beside them, continues, “Leia had some rather important information she wanted me to pass on to you.”

Ben stops walking. “My mother had something she wanted to tell me?” Ben asks softly.

“Oh, she always believed you would come home to her eventually, Master Ben,” 3PO says warmly. “She wanted to be prepared for when that happened.”

Ben draws in a shaky breath. Rey squeezes his hand and gazes up at him, her eyes glassy with affection and concern as she rubs his arm.

“If you’ll excuse us,” 3PO says turning to the rest of the group, “I believe this is a conversation Master Ben might prefer to have alone.”

“Fair enough,” Finn says softly.

Rose and Ahsoka offer gentle, understanding smiles, and Poe awkwardly tries to twist his lips into something sort of resembling smile. 

Rey starts to pull her hand away from Ben but he pulls it back to him. “Wait, Rey...I want you to come with me,” he says gently. Rey smiles.

“Now, let’s see if we can’t find a room on Leia’s ship where we can have a bit more privacy,” 3PO says dutifully as he walks towards the spacecraft, with R2D2 following closely behind him, as always. Rey and Ben follow the droids onto the ship and through the sliding doors to a small room with two bunks. 

“Won’t you be seated?” 3PO says politely. The only place to sit is on one of the bunks.

“Um...sure,” Rey says awkwardly and she and Ben sit down next to each other on the bed. Sitting next to Ben on a bed, despite its innocent context, makes Rey’s cheeks go hot, and she intentionally keeps a few inches of distance between them. But Ben appears unfazed as he takes her hand again, which only makes Rey blush harder.

“Lovely, now that everyone is comfortable, R2 has a message from your mother to show you, Master Ben.”

Ben breathes in deeply and Rey can sense the wave of intense emotion that is washing over him. She places her other free hand on top of their clasped hands and squeezes tightly.

Ben turns and looks at Rey, his adoration and gratitude for her presence apparent.

R2 plays the holo that Leia recorded for her son, and as soon as he sees her face, tears are falling from Ben’s eyes. Rey gently rubs the top of his hand. 

“Ben,” Leia says warmly, and Ben lets out a small, choked sob. “If you’re watching this, it means you’ve come home at long last.” Leia smiles. Rey turns to Ben and she can see his chin quivering. “I never gave up hope that you would come back, Ben, no matter how long it took, and I wanted to be sure I was prepared in case anything should happen to me before that happened. I hope you know how much your father and I love you, Ben. We always have and we always will.” 

Silent sobs wrack Ben’s body, and Rey’s face is concerned and loving as she rubs his back.

“I never sold our home on Chandrila; I couldn’t bring myself to, because I wanted it to be there for you to come home to one day. I’ve left some things for you there. I’ve also, of course, left you the means to start your new life. You will find a key to the Organa vaults inside my old desk.”

Ben glances at Rey briefly, his lips twitching into a small smile.

“Live a good life for me, Ben. Make your father and I proud. I’ll always love you, and may the Force be with you.”

The holo switches off and Ben continues to cry as he turns to rest his face on Rey’s chest. She strokes his hair until his tears finally subside.

When he sits up, Rey kisses his forehead. Ben smiles.

“You two do make a most  _ lovely _ couple!” 3PO remarks, and R2 beeps in agreement.

“ _ Threepio _ ,” Rey mutters.

“Yes?”

Rey shakes her head. “Nevermind.” She turns to Ben, her expression becoming serious. “Are you alright, Ben?” she asks softly.

Ben takes a deep, shaky breath. “I think so,” he says finally.

Rey smiles and kisses him on the cheek. “Good,” she says, and he smiles in turn.

“Well, we shouldn’t keep our friends waiting,” 3PO chimes in. 

Rey stands up and turns to Ben. “Ready?” 

Ben sighs. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

But his nerves seem to ease somewhat when Rey offers him her hand. He takes it appreciatively and they head back out to join Rey’s friends.

* * *

“Are you guys, um, hungry at all?” Finn asks.

“Oh no, I, um...” Rey says, turning to Ben and grinning. “I’ve just had  _ scones, _ actually!” Rey exclaims, a grin peeking across her face. Finn, Poe, and Rose give her a quizzical look, clearly wondering what is so exciting about scones. Ben is looking at her the way he always does, with that blazing adoration that makes her blush.

“So you tried the scones then? Did you like them? It’s a new recipe,” Ahsoka chimes in.

“Oh they were  _ wonderful,”  _ Rey responds joyously.

“Did you try one, Ben?” Ahsoka asks.

“No, I, um, I gave mine to Rey,” he says.

Ahsoka rolls her eyes and smiles knowingly. “Of course you did.”

“Well,  _ I’m  _ starving,” Rose cuts in.

“Alright then, I guess it’s settled. To the mess hall,” Poe says.

They walk through the bustling Resistance base and make their way to the automatic doors that slide open to grant them entry to the mess hall.

Rey eagerly helps herself to a tray; though she had eaten the scones not long ago, after months of eating desert rats and a lifetime of Plutt’s paltry Portions, she never says no to a hot meal.

3PO says he has some business to attend to, and he and the other droids skitter off somewhere. Chewbacca follows.

When they’ve all gotten a tray, the group settles into a table; Finn, Poe, Rose sit on one side and Ahsoka, Rey, and Ben sit opposite from them. 

There is a heavy, awkward silence at the table. While Rey eagerly gobbles her meal, the others nervously poke at their food, swirling it around on their trays. 

“So,” Finn finally says. “Did you all have a nice flight?” 

“Well,” Ahsoka chimes in, “My passengers determined that it’s ‘not safe’ to ‘fly through hyperspace on no sleep’ so I was forced to let Ben pilot my ship until I got a few hours of rest, at which point I was able to kick him out of the passenger’s seat. These two, meanwhile, were apparently having a  _ great  _ time in my kitchen.”

Rey starts to choke on the vegetable she had been eating as she and Ben turn bright red. 

“We were,” Rey coughs, “we were just having some tea and scones —”

“Mmm,  _ I’ll  _ say,” Ahsoka says, raising her eyebrows as she takes a sip of her caf.

Ben’s eyes are darting around the mess hall as he desperately avoids making eye contact with anyone.

Rey scowls at Ahsoka and then turns back to Finn.

“The trip was just fine, thank you,” Rey says sharply.

“You know what, I don’t even want to know what all the was about,” Poe mutters. 

“I told you, we were just having some tea and scones — ” Rey insists.

“ _ Anyway,” _ Finn interjects. “I see you succeeded in your, um, mission...” He pauses. “What was that like, that place you were in? What was it called again?”

“The World Between Worlds,” Ben says. It’s the first time he has spoken since they sat down. 

“Yeah, that place. So like, I’m trying to figure out how that whole thing works, like you weren’t exactly dead but you weren’t alive either?”

“Sort of,” Ben replies. “It’s more like a parallel dimension, I would say.”

“What’s it like there?” Finn asks.

Ben glances at Rey briefly before turning back to Finn. “Lonely,” he says finally. 

Rey’s expression becomes sad and perturbed.

“It’s also sort of beautiful, in a way,” Ben continues. “It’s all this dark, black, nothingness, but there are also stars, billions of them, swirling all around. Also... I saw my grandfather.”

Rey didn’t know about that part.

“My grandfather Anakin Skywalker was a noble Jedi Knight before Palpatine manipulated him into joining the dark side, when he became known as Darth Vader. Ahsoka was his Padawan, actually,” she says, nodding at her new friend with a smile. “And just before Vader died, he sacrificed himself for Luke, thus bringing him back to the Light,” Rey explains.

Finn lets out a long exhale. “Wow.” He pauses. “So, how did you manage to get him out of there, Rey? You said there was a portal to this place in a cave on Ahch-To, right?”

“That’s right."

“Was it like some type of freaky swirling vortex type thing that you had to climb through?” Finn asks.

Rey sighs and shakes her head. “Er...no. Not exactly.”

It  _ is  _ important to Rey that Ben tries to earn her friends’ acceptance and trust, but she’s not in the mood to rehash everything that happened in the World Between Worlds. She has other things on her mind, like the few inches that agonizingly separate her and Ben on the mess hall bench. She slowly and  — she hopes  — subtly moves over closer to him so that their thighs are touching, and there’s that delicious electricity again, sending shockwaves across every inch of her. Ben suddenly inhales sharply, much to Rey’s delight. 

She knows she’ll have to go over it all eventually, and the sooner she tells them about it, the sooner she can find some place to be alone with Ben.

It’s with this thought in her mind that she brushes her leg against Ben’s under the table. She does this just as he’s taking another sip of his caf, and his eyes suddenly widen as he starts to cough and sputter. 

“Are you...good, buddy?” Poe asks sardonically. 

Ben coughs again and swallows, dabbing his mouth with a napkin. “I’m  — it’s  — ” he stammers. “Fine,” he manages, “I’m just fine.”

Rey, meanwhile, is quite pleased with herself. She steals a sidelong glance at Ben, the corner of her mouth twitching into the slightest hint of a crooked smile.

_ Are you trying to kill me, Rey?  _ She hears Ben’s voice echo through the Force.

She subtly moves herself even closer to him.

_ Oh, absolutely,  _ she responds.

Ben takes another jagged breath.

_ Well, it’s working. _

She glances briefly at him and smirks.

_ Good.  _

Rey has now thoroughly lost her train of thought, and the others are still waiting expectantly for her to tell the story about the World Between Worlds.

She realizes she has barely taken the time to process it herself. She’s just been focused on the blissful miracle of Ben’s return, and... all the delights that come with that.

She also realizes that, just as Ben’s encounter with Anakin Skywalker was news to her, she hasn’t told him about The Son and The Daughter yet, either.

“Well...” Rey starts. Ben is looking right at her now, ever the patient and adoring listener, which doesn’t help at all with how...distracted she is. She focuses her gaze instead on her friends sitting opposite from her. “One moment I was in the cave on Ahch-To, and the next...I opened my eyes and I was in the World Between Worlds. It was like...the Force was pulling me there, like it was... meant to happen somehow. And maybe it was...when Ahsoka and I first met on Tatooine, she told me that, Ben and I, being a dyad in the Force, we were...are...supposed to bring balance to the Force.”

Rey glances at Ben, realizing she had failed to mention this to him as well.

She tells them about the Son and the Daughter, and what the Daughter said about finding balance within both sides of the Force, about Padm é and, of course, the miraculous moment when she found Ben. 

Rey exhales deeply, not realizing how worked up she had gotten while telling the story. She feels Ben take her hand and immediately she begins to feel calmer. 

She’s still overwhelmed by the fact that somehow,  _ impossibly _ , he is here with her, beside her. 

She is still overwhelmed by just how much she loves him and the fact that he loves her, too. 

And again her mind begins to wander; again she finds herself bored of this conversation and desperate for a moment when she and Ben can steal away from this stupid kriffing mess hall...

“Damn,” Poe says finally.

“Wow,” Rose echoes.

“That is...a lot,” Finn agrees.

“I’ve barely been able to process it myself, to be honest,” Rey admits. “Whatever happened in the World Between Worlds with the Daughter and the Son... it all suddenly felt  _ vastly  _ unimportant once I...once I got what I came for,” she adds softly, glancing shyly at Ben, who squeezes her hand affectionately and smiles back at her.

They hold each other’s gaze for a moment, staring adoringly at one another, until Rey hears Finn clearing his throat. Rey feels her face getting hot with embarrassment.

“Oh, piss off,” she snaps, narrowing her eyes at Finn. “Don’t pretend like you two aren’t just as bad.” Rey raises her eyebrows and glances at the table, where Poe has both of his hands wrapped tightly around one of Finn’s hands. Finn, embarrassed, pulls his hand away.

“Point taken,” he mutters. 

Rey responds with a self-satisfied smirk. She turns to Ben. “Did you know Finn and Poe are engaged to be married?” she asks gleefully.

“I did not know that,” Ben remarks. He turns to Finn and Poe. “Congratulations,” he adds with a smile and an awkward nod in the direction of the co-generals.

“Thanks,” Poe retorts. He turns to Finn. “So Finn, are we going to let Rey bring this guy as her plus-one?”

Rey rolls her eyes. “Guys, not this again. Also, his name is  _ Ben _ .”

Poe sighs dramatically. “Fine. Finn, are we going to let Rey bring...  _ Ben _ as her plus-one? Like, what’s our policy on former First Order Supreme Leaders as plus-ones?”

Rey, thoroughly exasperated, rolls her eyes again and buries her face in her hands.

“I mean, I think Rey would be very upset with us if we told her she can’t bring her boyfriend to our wedding,” Finn points out.

Rey looks up. “ _Guys,_ I _swear_ —”

Finn and Poe ignore her.

“Yeah, you’re right, General,” Poe says to his fiance. “I guess you can bring him to our wedding. Unless, of course, there was some other guy you had in mind  — or girl  — no judgement, obviously — ”

“Of course I would bring Ben as my plus-one, you idiots,” Rey mutters, narrowing her eyes at them.

“Ah, so he  _ is _ your boyfriend,” Finn says with a smirk. 

“Guys, I am literally  _ begging  _ you to shut-up,” Rey counters.

“I mean...” Ben interjects. “ _ Am _ I your boyfriend, Rey?” His lips twist into an infuriatingly smug grin.

Rey’s mortification amplifies to a level she had not previously thought possible.

Rose and Ahsoka, however, seem quite delighted by all this, judging by the gleeful grins plastered on their faces. 

Rey brusquely stands up without warning, causing everyone’s breakfast trays to rattle. “Well, you’ve all been  _ lovely _ , but I think it’s actually  _ high time _ I get back to Tatooine — ” 

“ _ Rey, _ ” Ben says. “It’s okay, you don’t have to  — I was just  — ”

“We’re just teasing you, Rey,” Rose interjects gently. 

But Rey is already thoroughly annoyed with everyone and is in no mood to be teased any further, so she picks up her empty tray and storms away from the table.

“Rey, wait  — ” she hears Ben’s voice calling behind her, but she ignores him, returning her tray and exiting the mess hall. 

She rests her back against the wall and buries her burning hot face in her hands, when she hears the doors to the mess hall slide open and then shut again.

“Rey?” Ben’s voice echoes.

Rey reluctantly looks up. 

Ben smiles gently as he approaches her.

“Are you alright, Rey?” he asks as he brushes a strand of hair out of her face.

She smiles half-heartedly. “I just don’t like being teased.”

Ben places his hand on her face, gently stroking her cheek with his thumb.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he says, his face scrunching up in concern.

“It’s fine, I’m just embarrassed,” she mutters. 

“That’s okay,” Ben says. And then he kisses her, and just like that, all of her annoyance and frustration and embarrassment melt away. 

“And I mean, to be fair...” Rey says with a shy smile as she runs a hand through Ben’s thick, dark hair, “I guess you  _ are  _ sort of my boyfriend,” she adds, eyes darting around shyly.

“Hmm, is that so, Rey of Jakku?” Ben replies teasingly, leaning in closer to her.

“I suppose it is,” Rey murmurs as she leans in to kiss him. Ben deepens the kiss and she feels his tongue slide into her mouth and now more than ever she desperately wants to find some place where they can be completely alone —

And then, the doors of the mess hall slide open, and she and Ben quickly pull away from each other but it is, of course, too late, and the others have already seen, and Rey is convinced she might actually die from the sheer mortification of it all. 

“Yeah, it’s official, you two are one-thousand percent worse than Finn and me,” Poe says.

Rose scoffs. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t be doing the same thing if you thought Finn was dead for months and then rescued him from the netherworld, Poe. Besides,” Rose adds, raising her eyebrows. “I’ve walked past your room at night and you two are  _ not _ quiet.”

Now Poe and Finn are the ones blushing, and Rey has never been more grateful to Rose.

Poe sighs. “ _ Anyway,”  _ he mutters, “How long are you two love birds planning to stay here?”

Rey and Ben turn to look at one another. She hadn’t really thought about that. They would need to go back to Tatooine to get the Falcon at some point, as she suspects Ben will not be too happy to hear she left his father’s ship on that miserable desert planet, and then she wonders if Ben will fly her to Coruscant to try the best scones in the galaxy, or show her his home on Chandrila, or take her swimming under the waterfalls of Naboo...

But she wants to give her friends a little more time to get to know Ben, and hopefully start to see him for who he has become, and not the person he was. 

“Well...” Rey starts, “I’m not sure, exactly, but at least a few nights?”

“Alright then,” Poe retorts. “I suppose I should show you to your rooms, then.”

_ Rooms _ , Rey thinks. Plural.

She has never hated anyone as much as she hates Poe Dameron in that moment.


End file.
